Of Aliens, Immortals and Implants
by Larania Drake
Summary: The Taelons thought that only humans lived on earth. Well, they thought wrong. Gargoyles/EFC and Highlander cross.
1. Not All Alone

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Not All Alone

Disclaimer: Gargoyles belongs to Buena Vista and Earth: Final Conflict belongs to Tribune Entertainment. Highlander belongs to Rysher. I do this for the heck of it, and do not make any money. 

Note: this fic takes place in the second season of Earth: Final Conflict, and will have a different gargoyle Clan than Goliath's. Thus, the original Clan won't be mentioned (yet). E-mail me with all threats or comments, at [laraniadrake@yahoo.com][1]. This will be strange. Oh, man, will it be strange.

Da'an stood at one of the many virtual glass windows of the mother ship.

He stood, lost in thought, out at the beautiful orb that was Earth. It was a jewel, one that could almost rival what his home world had once been. Had once been, and never would be again.

Da'an wondered if the irony would ever dull its edge.

His thoughts wandered, and he found himself thinking about how his kind and the Jaridians had separated. They had been one, once. It had been unthinkable at the time that there could be more than one intelligent species inhabiting their world. His species that made what they thought was the proper choice. 

Had he been human, he would have laughed at the irony of it all, and felt bitter at what that division had brought his kind to. They were killers, destroyers of a hundred worlds, even if by proxy. They had even ruined their own planet. He still could see in his mind's eye the sheer beauty that was gone. Da'an glanced around the ship. He saw the evidence of his kind's "advances". They had created such amazing advances in technology, yet they were a barren race. They had seen things that most humans could not imagine; yet they were totally dependent on the humans for their own survival. 

Yes, the irony was enough, that had he the sense of taste, he would have been felt a strip of metal over his tongue.

Had been able to do it all over again, he would have made his people see that there might have been a way for them to have lived in peace with themselves, and the _shakariva._ He would have protected his planet from the ecological disasters that the war had caused. He would have made sure that the humans would never been touched by the Companions, and allowed to evolve naturally, over time, as they should have.

Yet, he knew that there was nothing he could do about that now. Now, all he could do was protect the humans and his own kind from each other, and stop an interstellar war. 

Da'an wondered, briefly, if there had been any other intelligent species to evolve on Earth. It was a fleeting thought, which was closely followed by; I would try to keep them from making the same mistakes we did. It was forgotten in a breath, and lost to his mind, as he returned to more pressing matters.

Liam Kincaid was also lost in thought. It was a different sort than Da'an's, however. He had to deal with the Human Liberation, and Doors had been very, very difficult recently.

He was sitting in his rooms, and trying very hard to get some shuteye. He had had a very trying interview with his highness, and now his nerves were wearing thin. 

With a groan, Liam shifted positions, and sighed. Why the hell wouldn't the man listen to reason? Da'an was a good ally. However, even as he thought this, he remembered how he had been shifty, kept him out of the loop, and had his own agendas. Da'an was fond of Liam, that he knew, but that wouldn't keep him from using him to further his own goals.

Beating on his pillow did no good, so Liam got up, and sat his desk. Maybe surfing the Net would help. He could only try.

For many hundred years, the Irish Clan had lived in quiet obscurity, and they liked it that way. They had been protecting the small human town for a very long time, and most never saw any reason to change that. They were safe, they were happy, and they didn't have to worry about getting involved in the outside world. Yet, some things were so big, that they couldn't help but notice, not matter how hard they had tried. 

The day that word of the Companions arrival had reached them, they had been practically glued to the telly.

"This is a day that will be remembered for all time…" rattled out the news anchor. "The first contact humanity has ever had with a species from another world…"

They had come just in time, many of the Clan elders thought. The SI wars had come close to engulfing the entire world.

The Taelons brought peace. They also brought cures for disease, starvation, and helped save the environment. It was something that made many in the Clan think that maybe it was time for them to come out of hiding.

The Clan leader, Joseph, was adamantly against it.

"What would you tell these "Companions," hey? That there was another species out there that no one knew about? You know what they'd do to us? They'd cut us up to look at our insides! Can you imagine? We've been luckier than many other Clans. For all we know, we might be the only ones left…" Joseph was well over a hundred, and was still in his prime. His words carried great weight.

However, his Second held a different opinion. She had always been an odd one, and had left for many years. She had gone exploring, and knew more about the modern world than many of the humans could boast. Deirdre, she was named, counseled caution. There might be a future in it, but it was too soon to tell.

It was three years later, when a young female of the Clan, not even forty, started to speak to Deirdre of her growing restlessness.

"I just can't stand it here much longer, Second," she addressed Deirdre. "I want to, need to, leave…" This was accompanied by a longer look in the direction of the human village.

They were standing on a cliff, overlooking the sea. It was a beautiful view, and an even better launching point for the gliding gargoyles. 

Deirdre had seen the look the youngster had given. She thought she knew the cause. This girl was not meant to be a warrior. She was very slight, almost human in her appearance, with a human skin color. She could have been any beautiful human girl wearing a cloak. Bridget was her name, and she was hopelessly infatuated with one of the human boys of the town. To complicate matters, he fully returned her affections. Yet, both the gargoyles and humans looked down upon such relationships.

"So, you are thinking of trying something with that young beau of yours, eh?" Deirdre asked teasingly. Bridget blushed a brilliant scarlet.

Turing serious, she told her," You know that I left for a long time, yes? Was that the reason that you wanted to speak with me?"

Shyly, Bridget nodded, keeping her eyes on the ground. "I thought you could give me some advice," she said lamely.

"I think that you were trying to get a supporter," Deirdre said sharply, more so than she had intended. "You know that the outside world is dangerous. More so than you could ever realize. They would never accept you, little one. I'm sorry. If you were planning on running away, you would find it no easier there than here. Even less so, in truth."

"What do you know about it?" the younger gargoyle shouted, her eyes blazing red. "What so you know about being in love?"

Deirdre felt like holding her head and moaning. She had never taken a mate, and as such, would not be listened to by this hotheaded little gargoyle. All she could do was shake her illusions from her, before she and her boyfriend did something rash.

"Do you think that matters?" she rapped out. "As Clan Second, I am making you give your solemn vow, no arguing, no negotiating, that you will stay inside our village. You can still see your human friend, but you will not leave!"

The girl's huge black eyes filled with tears. She rung her hands, and started to stutter," I, I, I _can't!_" 

"Little sister-" Deirdre said menacingly.

"Fine, Mother and Da always liked you the best anyway! I should have known that you wouldn't care! You're not even my real sister!"

"Our familial relationship had nothing to do with it. Even if you do try to make it into one all the time. Now, promise me!"

She burst out crying. Huge sobs racked her, and she covered her face with her talons.

"You know that won't work."

"I hate you!" she said in a full-throated roar.

Deirdre was unimpressed. "Now, swear."

"I-I swear," she stumbled over the words, and jumped from the cliff. Her wings caught the breeze, and she glided away.

Sighing, Deirdre followed her back to the Clan roosting sites. It was almost dawn.

Da'an was still locked in contemplation when he heard a one of the Companion protectors call in.

Agent Conner was the newest Companion protector, assigned to aid the UK Companion.

"We have recently found a new life form that would be of great interest to the Companions," Conner said.

"What would that be?" asked the implant on duty.

A strange smile lit the Agent's face. "Look for yourself." The data stream that Da'an was looking at shifted view. In it, was a creature of the likes that he had never seen before. It was taller than your average human, with bat-like wings, and a pale skin tone. It was unconscious. 

"It put up quite a fight," Agent Conner went on, " but we managed to subdue it. It was in the company of a young human male. We had to sedate them both, one for experiments, the other for questioning."

"Excellent," said the communications officer. "Have them brought aboard, so we can begin research at once."

Da'an listened in carefully, hoping to learn more. Nothing more was reported.

He was greatly troubled by what he had heard. There had been vague reports from Ma'el, stating the possibility of another sentient species existence on Earth, but nothing was ever proven. Yet, here it was.

He contacted Liam.

Liam Kincaid had fallen asleep at the computer console. Granted, it was not the most comfortable of places, but he was still very grumpy about being awoken…

Grunting, and grabbing for his global, he grunted," Kincaid."

"Liam, I have urgent news," said the normally placid Companion.

"What?" he asked, trying not to sound like he wanted to use his _shakariva_ on him, which he did. His neck was killing him.

"There was been a new species found."

"Yeah, great, whatever. I'm thrilled for all the xeno-biologists out there. What does this have to do with me?"

"It is a sentient species, Liam," commented Da'an in the tones used for an unusually thick child. "From Earth."

Liam jumped about three feet. "What!" he exclaimed.

There was a slight smirk on Da'an's face at the way Liam reacted, but it was quickly replaced by worry.

"I fear for the safety of this new found people. Depending on how the tests go, there is the possibility that they will be used as fodder for our war with the Jaridians, or worse."

"I'll be there as soon as I can," Liam said promptly. "Any preliminary reports?"

"Not yet. I called you as soon as I heard about it. I think you might want to contact some of your friends, as well," Da'an finished, and severed the connection. 

Liam tried to get out of his chair, almost fell out, but was able to wobble to the shower, and to get dressed.

When he arrived on the mother ship, he was immediately greeted by Da'an.

"Liam, I am glad you could make it on such short notice," the pale alien said, sounding like he was speaking to an old friend about the weather.

"I was glad that you contacted me," Liam responded. The North American Companion always extruded an air of calm that was infectious. "Is there any news?"

"We have been able to tell that it is an adolescent female, but that is all we have learned, and even of that, without any others of her kind to compare her to, we are not sure of. We have not been able to get any information directly from her. Either she does not know English, she is afraid to speak, or is extremely strong willed."

"May I see it…her?" Liam asked, wondering at this strange creature that had been found.

"At once."

Bridget was being held within the Labyrinth of corridors within the Taelon mother ship. Even if she were to escape her cell, she doubted that see would ever get out to the shuttles. Once she got there, there was no way that she could fly one, and they were on space. She couldn't glide from here. Despair gripped her. They hadn't even let her speak to Ian since they had been captured. Why hadn't she listened to Deirdre?

She was curled up in a ball of misery in one of the far corners of the nearly circular room she was confined to. The last time anyone had entered, she had growled, pounced, but ended up stunned by one to the strange organic looking things attached to the pale human's arm. Bridget had never been afraid of humans, but these made her blood cold. They were so pale, and they had no expression, like the ghouls that the Clan Elders would frighten her with as a hatchling.

So, she had done her best to hide. She was streaming tears, but none of the guards cared, or even seemed to notice.

Then, she felt a hand touch her shoulder. She jumped, and let out a noise that was more screech than growl.

Bridget was so concentrated on her own predicament that she hadn't heard Liam and Da'an enter the cell.

All she could do was stare at the two beings in front of her. Though she had never seen one before, there was no mistaking a Taelon for anything else. The other looked like a very human man. She was surprised to see sympathy on the eyes of both of them.

"We don't mean to hurt you," the Taelon said. "We only wish to know more about you, and if there are more of your kind out there."

Hearing this, and knowing what Deirdre would do, she clamped her mouth shut.

"They did _what?_" roared Deirdre. Her fellow gargoyles jumped back at the sound of the best warrior of the Clan.

"We believe they have run away, Second," answered one of the rookery mothers.

Deirdre stopped herself from repeating her earlier roar, and sought out the calm she would need to sort out this mess without going berserk.

"Do you have any idea when?" she grated, pulling back her lips to reveal her impressive teeth.

"We think they left yesterday, right after sunset," said one of the humans. Deirdre thought it was one of Ian's cousins.

She turned to Ian's cousin. "Where could they have gone?"

"We don't know, Second," replied several voices, human and gargoyle. "They could have gone anywhere, with Bridget to take them."

Deirdre's eyes glowed red briefly, in a flurry of self-accusation. She fought it down. She had told her little sister to stay in the village, and made her promise not to leave it. That was all she could have done.

_Is it?_ A traitorous voice said in her mind. _You could have had her watched. You could have talked to Ian's parents. You could have-_

She new there was more she could have done, but hindsight was always perfect. She carefully schooled her expression to what some of her rookery brothers fondly called her "bitch-face" and started to give orders. That was all she could do, for now. She needed information, if she was going to follow them, and no one else could. 

It had been five months, and the creature had not said a word.

"I know that she is intelligent," Liam mused to Da'an. "I can see that she understands when we speak to her, that she feels relief when we go. What I'm afraid of is Zo'or deciding that she had been too quiet, and starts to torture her."

"I, too, fear such an outcome," Da'an confided. 

They were both staring at the data-stream, which held the image from the creature's cell. They were staring at it, but not really seeing it.

"I wish she would talk to us!" Liam burst out in frustration. Both his hands went up in the air, and almost grabbed his hair. He felt like pulling it out.

"I believe she wants to protect something; her people, perhaps," Da'an observed. "I noticed that she appeared to want to speak, until I mentioned finding more of her kind. I think that is what had caused her silence."

"You'd think that she wanted to reunited with her kind."

"If they did not trust the Companions, then well she might prefer staying quiet."

"Da'an," called a voice from the door.

Ronald Sandoval, former FBI agent and now devoted implant, stood stiffly, waiting to be acknowledged.

"Yes, Agent Sandoval?" answered Da'an.

"There is a new candidate for implantation waiting for an interview."

Da'an tilted his graceful, narrow face to the side. "I was not aware that a new implant would be needed."

"Zo'or has come to the conclusion, that even though Kincaid's abilities have been adequate, that you need the services of an implant to completely insure your security. I'm sure that this candidate will meet with your approval?" Sandoval asked, handing Kincaid a computer disk. "Review this one's history, and see if she meets your standards."

"I did not request a new implant, Agent Sandoval," Da'an said mildly, but there was a biting edge to his voice.

"These order come with the full support of the Synod," Sandoval said self confidently.

"I'm sure they do," Da'an answered him, irony blatant. 

Da'an looked at the disk, and asked that Liam open the file. 

Sandoval stood still in the doorway, waiting to be dismissed.

Da'an ignored him.

The file came up on the data-stream. On it was a picture of a tough, fit looking woman, with an extensive military history.

"According to this, is Sergeant Deirdre Cooley, a veteran of the SI war. She was apparently," Liam's eyes flickered to Da'an and back," co-second with me in Commander Boone's platoon when it was ambushed."

"Interesting," Sandoval murmured. "I was told that only you and the Commander had survived.

"According to this, she almost didn't. She was left for dead, then captured by troops from the other side. She was tended, in the hopes that she could provide more information, but managed to escape. She even earned a medal for her heroism."

"A most… suitable recommendation for a Companion protector," Da'an answered.

"She was one of the record holders for the martial arts teams among the Rangers, and was offered the position of Companion protector when the Taelons first arrived, but she turned us down."

That was interesting, thought Kincaid. "Did she give a reason?" he asked.

"Only family obligations, but she seemed to feel that they took precedence. Considering that she never listed her home address, or even her next of kin, we were unable to do anything to persuade her to join us."

Da'an flashed blue for a moment. All in the room knew what Sandoval meant when he said "persuade".

"Did she give any reason for now deciding to take the Companions up on their offer?" Liam asked.

"Only that now she needed a job." Sandoval smiled. "I think that she will find that this is her calling, if she is implanted."

Da'an glanced over at Liam. It was plain to anyone that he had no choice in the matter. Liam sighed.

"When would be a good time to set up an interview?" Da'an said, gesturing with his pale, graceful hands.

"Right now," Sandoval answered smugly. He whipped out his global. 

"Zo'or, Da'an will now interview Sergeant Cooley. Would you please enter?" he said with the utmost courtesy. 

Liam felt like he had walked straight into a trap. It was obvious that Zo'or had set this up to get a mole into the renegade Companion's inner confidences, but both he and the Taelon's hands were tied. If they refused, Zo'or could denounce them to the Synod as keeping secrets, and if they didn't, they could have no way to continue with their Liberation activities. 

He looked at his palms briefly, seeing a beginning of a glow. Well, if worst came to worst, he could kill her. While it might not be the plan of choice, he knew that the option was there. He didn't like the idea. She could be a perfectly innocent person…

Zo'or, the smirking, annoying little snot that would use anything to get what he wanted, as Liam thought of him, entered the North American Companion's office. Behind him, was the woman whose picture he had seen in the file he had just reviewed.

The picture didn't do the woman justice, he thought when he got a good look at her. She was almost as tall as he was, and he didn't want to know if he could beat her at arm wrestling. Her face was hard, but there was something in it that said she had compassion. Her eyes were an odd yellow green, and her dark brown, almost black, wavy hair was in a heavy knot at the base of her neck. Her nose was ordinary, over a full mouth, and full eye brows, not plucked like most women's, swept up to a high forehead. Her skin had the weathered look of someone that stayed out doors often. She wore loose khakis, and a trench coat, over a high-buttoned brown shirt, with a darker brown vest over the shirt. She also wore a look of curiosity, which was quickly disguised, and did nothing to belay the dangerous grace of her movements. This woman was a trained killer.

Competent, confident, and dangerous; all that Zo'or could have wanted.

Depending on where her loyalties lied, she could be an asset, or one pain in the ass.

Sandoval smiled when she entered the room, and gestured towards a chair for her. Cooley didn't return the smile, or even glance at the chair. She remained standing, her gaze trained at the Companion she had come to see, and his protector. 

"Sergeant Cooley, this is Major Liam Kincaid, protector of the North American Companion, Da'an," he introduced.

Deirdre entered the Taelon embassy, wondering into what kind of situation she was getting herself. 

In her years away from home, she had been lucky to fall in with the London Clan. They had taught her the rudiments of her magic, and showed her the spell that allowed her to become human.

She had left the Clan after the painful revelation that she was adopted. Gargoyles all felt a great need to be among their Clan, and when the specter of not belonging by blood crept into everyone's minds, she had left. 

After she learned the trick to become human, she was able to explore the world. It was one of the greatest times of her life, seeing what was only a part of the history books to her Clan.

However, when the SI wars began, she had been in America, and she had felt honor bound to join the fight. It was her world too.

The wars hardened her. Although she was warrior born, no one could have predicted the effect that the fighting would have on her, or the world. It seemed to her Clan, when she returned, that a piece of her soul was gone.

She was not really listening to the toad Sandoval, when he was making introductions. The man was so committed to the Companions, that she wouldn't be surprised if he would cut his own tongue out for them. She was wondering what he would look like if he did, when she heard him say, "Liam Kincaid," and she snapped to attention.

The young man, standing in front of Da'an, was most definitely not the Liam Kincaid that she knew. He had died during the wars.

To the alien, she gave the ritual hand gestures she had seen Sandoval make, but turned to face 'Kincaid' sharply.

"Hello, Major," she drawled at him. "You've changed since the last time I saw you."

The man's face turned an interesting shade of purple at that.

"Sergeant, it is good to see you again as well." 

Through out this little exchange, Deirdre was careful to keep her Irish accent from becoming to prominent. It wasn't hard; she had plenty of practice.

"Please," she said lightly," we're going to be working together, and we already know each other, so you simply must call me Deirdre."

Liam's eyebrows rose. "You sound very confident."

She just smiled.

"Tell me Sergeant, why do you wish to become a Companion protector?" asked Da'an, trying to restore equilibrium to the room.

Suddenly serious, the woman answered," I wish it because it is something that must be done. The Companions are here, and since they may have brought the Jaridians here by accident to not, what is done is done, and earth must be protected. I feel I would be helping my world by helping the Companions. It is as simple as that."

Nodding gracefully, Da'an continued," Do you also think that you are qualified for this task?"

At this, she grinned. Nodding toward Liam, she said," Far more so than that unbloodied boy that you call your 'protector' right now."

"Is that a challenge?" Liam said incredulously.

"If you like. Sandoval, do you want to join us? It would make for an interesting free for all, as entertainment goes. I also have much knowledge and experience of security and police work. I may not be as good Boone," and there, her face showed a faint clouding of grief," but who is?" she ended softly.

Zo'or had taken a position next to the North American Companion. He nodded, and said," If you truly wish to make this into a contest, than shall we begin?"

Deirdre felt sick at the thought of fighting like gladiators in a ring, but she had to keep with the persona she had invented for this role. She smiled grimly, and made a come hither gesture to Kincaid.

Kincaid wondered what had possessed Zo'or to let them do this. 

He found his balance, lined up with Cooley, and -

She back kicked, catching Sandoval in the groin.

How had she realized he would attack from behind?

Liam really didn't have time to ponder that, because she was jabbing at his head.

He blocked quickly, hearing Sandoval moan on the ground and wanting to avoid such a fate himself. He did a side kick, but she didn't block. She _caught_ it, and slammed a hammer fist into his knee. There was a sickening popping sound as the cartilage and bone broke. 

He moaned, and she dropped his leg.

"What did I tell you?" she said, with a smirk.

Despite the pain he felt, at that moment Liam wondered how Zo'or's favorite expression had gotten onto a human face.

"I believe that Sergeant Cooley has proven her abilities as a Companion protector?" Zo'or said mildly, his face mirroring Cooley's.

The next thing Kincaid knew, he was waking up in a traction.

"I must say, if you're going to pick a fight, pick one that you can be sure you can win," he heard.

"I'll remember that," he mumbled back. He cracked his eyes open to see Captain Lili Marquette sitting by his bed.

"I wish I could have seen that fight," she commented. "I can just see that girl whooping your rear."

"Well, thank you for your support, Lili," he replied sarcastically.

"You're welcome."

Deirdre felt faintly ill as she stepped out of the dressing room in her paper gown into Dr. Belman's clinic.

"Now, you will feel some discomfort as you experience the procedure," she heard Belman rattle on, but her thoughts were on making sure the spell she had to keep herself intact were in place.

She concentrated on the mental chant of Latin which she wound around her mind, and muttered ever so often, hoping that Belman wouldn't notice.

"Here we go, Ms. Cooley," the doctor said, gesturing to the platform where Deirdre was to lay.

With trepidation, a few final phrases, and a prayer to the Creator, she lay down. Dr. Belman began strapping down her head. Deirdre glanced over at the probe which would insert the CVI into her brain.

Beautiful, she thought. I'm going to let them stick a piece if alien hardware into my head. God, I hope this spell works.

She shuddered, hearing the probe start up. 

There was a faint prick on the bottom of her jaw, then a searing pain jabbed up inside her head. The world distorted crazily, her eyes no longer being under her own control.

The pain was awful, but not as bad as…other things she had gone through.

The probe pulled itself out of her brain, and the seizures hit.

She started to shake and every single memory chose at that moment to make itself seen. Hatching, gliding, war and peace all shoved itself forward, demanding to be acknowledged _right now_. She could do nothing to stop it. 

Suddenly, a voice outside the maelstrom of her mind shouted, "Ride it out!"

She was dying, again. 

She remembered it so vividly. Dying with the rest of Boone's platoon. Seeing so many of her friends reduced to so much meat. Feeling _herself_ reduced to so much meat.

It became a cycle, never ending-

"Ride it out!" several voices shouted together.

With all the pain, how could she? She wondered. Then she flat-lined.

Kincaid had been able to get out of the hospital for this. He had wanted to see the implantation, never having seen one before. 

He, Lili and Da'an sat behind a glassed in barrier, watching as the Sergeant sat on the platform, and was tied down.

He could almost feel pity for the woman. He shifted his weight, and his knee sent a sharp pain into his leg. He could _almost_ feel pity for her.

Everything went according to plan, when he saw the probe withdraw. He saw the seizures hit. Then the monitor on her vitals went dead.

He joined with the others there, screaming for her to ride it out, to survive.

Dr. Belman had just called for a crash cart, when her heart started again, spontaneously.

They all watched in stunned amazement as she woke up.

"Um… Wha' dinae' miss?" she asked, and fell back in a dead faint.

Deirdre woke, feeling like her headache would never end. That was strange, because stone sleep should have… Feeling that complete lack of her wings, she remembered what had happened with startling clarity. For a moment, all she could feel was the sense of relief that magic had won out over science.

She sat up, and looked at her surrounding. It was a typical recovery room. Her clothes, coat and boots were on a bench next to the wall. Swinging her feet to the floor, she got dressed.

She had barely finished when Sandoval entered the room.

"Good, you're decent," he said. At her strange look, he responded, "I have only encountered one female implant before." He had the grace to be semi-embarrassed.

Following him out, she observed him out of the corner of her eye. He was the only implant she had ever met, so she had to assume that he was typical of those that had become protectors. As "Liam" was not, Sandoval was all she had to try to emulate.

They came into the audience chamber of the North American Companion, and she heard the slight hiss of released gases. Sandoval reached into a smallish container, and picked up small creature that looked similar to his own.

"Put out your arm," he instructed. "As a Companion protector, you will need to be armed at all times, and this creature, called a skrill, will serve you in ways that you can not imagine."

Frankly, Deirdre always thought that her weapon of choice was a hand and a half broad sword, but this would work.

She rolled up her sleeve up to her elbow, and felt the little animal settle onto her arm. It was still cool from the suspension chamber that had housed it.

Sandoval put his arm out, with his own skrill visible. It glowed.

Other than a sharp intake of breath, Deirdre made sure that no other signs of her pain were visible, as the skrill reacted to Sandoval's, and drove its appendages into arm. She could feel it connecting to her. It took all her self-control to keep from crying out. 

"Impressive," she heard a dry, alien voice say from behind her. Turning, she came face to face with Da'an.

She bowed, nod trusting her voice at this point. She wondered if she could still pull this off.

"My protector Liam will show you the carrying out of your new duties," he said, in his otherworldly tones. 

The false Liam was standing in the doorway. She nodded to him, and she made the ritual hand gestures to Da'an, and left.

They went deeper into the embassy.

Kincaid's leg had been healed rapidly, due to Taelon science. He was only walking with a slight limp, now.

She winced as she saw that. True, she had made the challenge, but she still would have preferred not having to have hurt him. She knew she would win, simply by the virtue that she could take anything he could give. She would heal, and she knew it. 

"Sorry about your knee," she said off handedly. 

Liam grunted an acknowledgement, but said nothing.

"I know that you aren't Liam Kincaid," she blurted out.

Liam felt like someone had hit him in the back of the head with a board. True, he had wondered, if she was who she said she was, then she would know that he was false, but… He never thought she would just come out and say it.

Especially after she had been implanted.

He whirled around to face her. He saw that she was nearly as surprised about her revelation as he was.

"Really. Then, tell me, Sergeant, who am I? Why haven't you told the Taelons this?" he asked, getting up in her face.

She didn't back down.

"I didn't, because at least one of them has to know by now. If you have been doing your job correctly, then what does it matter?"

"You think I haven't been doing my job?" he grated back at her.

"Well, anyone who looses that easily in a not quite fair fight must be doing something wrong," Deirdre snapped, without thinking.

"I'll tell you what, _Sergeant_-" he began, when a cough interrupted them.

Captain Marquette was standing in the hall before them, and said, "Your first tour of the mother ship leaves in five minutes. Liam will brief you on the way up."

Both of them nodded to Marquette, and followed her to the shuttle bay.

Looking around, Deirdre was barely able to conceal her wonder about what she saw. The organic ships, the virtual glass, all of it was too unreal. The only thing in her experience that might compare was her one time encounter with a Fey… That was something she did not want to remember, but her CVI played back the memory in full.

The memory intrusion lasted for barely a moment, but it left her shaking.

"Are you all right?" asked Lili, having seen Boone go through similar episodes.

"I'll live," Deirdre replied hoarsely. 

She was now reliving the last few days, getting the interview with the Companions, meeting Zo'or, knowing that she would end up playing a part of a power struggle that had nothing to do with her or her kind. Her resolve to save her little sister, no matter what.

With a shuddering breath, she felt her conviction that she would save her wayward, adopted sister, no matter what, come back to her. That was all that mattered.

It was but a moment for them to enter and leave inter-dimensional drive, and land safely aboard the mother ship. If Deirdre could have let herself, her jaw would have been hitting the ground at every turn. It was truly a place of wonders.

They were passed by humans, many with obvious implants, in skin-tight blue and purple suits. She wondered if the Taelons only saw in the UV range. That would explain why they were so fond of those two colors.

What bothered her was how ghostlike those people were. They moved like zombies about their appointed tasks. Their eyes were fixed onto nothing, and they were pale as glacial ice.

It was like they were trying to become as Companion like as possible, she mused to herself. Absently, with her CVI's help, she took in everything she saw for later review. Then they reached the bridge.

Zo'or looked at her smugly from his command chair.

He was about to say something to her, when a wolf-like bay sounded through the ship.

It was followed by a cat's screech, and the sounds of a struggle.

Deirdre knew that cry. It was Bridget!

The noise went on for several minutes, when it finally faded out.

"I apologize for the interruption. Our new test subject has been less than cooperative," said the leader of the Synod.

The two protectors stood still, waiting for the Synod Leader to continue.

"You will be in charge of security for Da'an, something you will carry out with your life, if necessary."

Abruptly, Zo'or stood up from his chair. "Leave us," he commanded Liam.

Liam felt like cursing. He could tell that Zo'or was planning to tell this newest implant something important, and didn't want him to hear it. Damn. He guessed that there was a mole in with him now, and he would have to figure out a way to get around her. He hoped he wouldn't end up killing her.

Deirdre stood before Zo'or, and wondered if she were shaking.

"I would like to have you look in on our newest acquisition," he told her, his voice unbearably smug. "I will need someone that I can assure the loyalty of to be guarding her. As you have just been implanted, I can trust you where I can not trust Sandoval or Kincaid."

Fat chance, she thought, even as she questioned her luck. She knew that she would have to prove her "devotion" to the Companions in some way, and that the best way to do so would be to act like a total toady. It would drive her usual leader's, individualistic spirit, mad.

"Come with me," Zo'or said imperiously, gesturing for her to follow him.

Gathering her nerve, she strode along behind him, still being careful to observe her surroundings. They went down a maze of halls and chambers, when they came to a pair of rooms, one clearly a lab. In the lab, was an unconscious Bridget. Deirdre's heart lurched at the sight of what they had done to the small, pale, delicate gargoyle.

She was strapped down to a table, with dozens of fine wire and organic probes running from her to a legion of monitoring devices. One of her talons had been removed. 

The sheer barbarity of the tests that they were performing nearly made her loose control of the spell that kept her human. As it was, she still wanted to tear the ship down around their heads, with her frail human fingers.

Zo'or began to describe Bridget's capture in Dublin. Deirdre didn't hear. 

"We tried to implant the human male we found with her. It would have been the easiest way to get information from him, but, alas, he did not survive the procedure."

Poor Ian, Deirdre mourned. He had been a good kid.

"Since this creature has made several attempts to free herself, I need someone who can take care of herself to guard the scientists studying her. I will also need you to report to me regularly on Da'an's activities. I cannot trust any of the old implants, and Kincaid could never be trusted to begin with. I was lucky to have found you. I will call you when you are needed. You are dismissed."

Face blank, Deirdre performed the Companion hand gestures, spun sharply, and left.

Thank the Dragon, she thought as she marched to the shuttle bay, that he has such overweening pride, that he would place me immediately on what I wanted! This guy's head's so big, you could double it as a blimp!

She reached the shuttle bay. Marquette and Kincaid were waiting for her there, and were speaking to each other in hushed tones. This quiet conversation ended abruptly when they noticed her approach, so she assumed it was about her.

"Marquette, Liam," Cooley greeted them. Lili waved her inside the shuttle, and Deirdre strapped herself into her seat. Liam did the same. 

Deirdre was not so caught up in her own worries that she didn't stare in wonder at how Captain Marquette piloted the shuttle. The thought crossed her mind, it was a pity that Lili had not been born with wings.

It was much later that night that Deirdre returned to the apartment she had rented for this role. In the twenty years she traveled before the SI wars, she had acquired a modest amount of money, and she had pulled her savings when she had to find a place. Now that she had the job of protector, she could afford the loft apartment easily.

Tossing her coat onto her couch, she through herself down beside it. Taking a deep breath, she started one of the meditation exercises that she had been taught by the Ishmira Clan. She chuckled softly at the thought. Before going there, she had only thought she knew how to fight. 

She'd been tossed around like a doll.

Putting the thought from her mind, she went over the situation mentally. 

One: She was now an implant, with a mortal weapon that few could match.

Two: Bridget was being held, and experimented on. Deirdre herself was to be in charge of keeping her from harming the scientists working on her.

Three-

Wait a minute.

She eyes flew open when it occurred to her that Zo'or had said that he could not trust Kincaid, or even Da'an, a fellow Taelon. Could she get Da'an to support her?

That was a tricky one. Obviously, he knew that "Kincaid" was not what he said he was. Plus, he wasn't implanted. The fact that Da'an trusted Liam as his protector spoke volumes. Still, better to be cautious. 

Deirdre walked over to the computer console, and pulled up everything she could on Da'an, "Liam Kincaid" and even William Boone's history with the Taelons. Five hours later, when she had absorbed all the information available, she stopped.

She sighed, and decided that she needed some air. 

Grabbing her coat, she checked to see if her sword was secure, and headed to the street.

Liam felt like killing something when he and Lili walked into the Flat Planet café that evening.

"She's an implant now, and that automatically makes her "guilty"," he argued to Lili as they sat down.

"Still, we don't know what Zo'or has planned to use her for," Lili stated, holding firm.

"Isn't it obvious? She's going to spy on us," he threw back.

"I, I don't know, Liam," Lili muttered, not knowing how to respond to that one. They both knew that Zo'or never did anything out of the kindness of his heart, and now he had someone in a position to destroy the Liberation movement.

"What has disturbed you both so that you come in shouting?" called the calm voice of Mia, Lili's "sister" from an alternate dimension, behind the bar.

"We have a new implant to deal with," Liam explained the situation.

Mia listened attentively. "I would think that such a woman as you described would prefer death than to live as a slave the Companions."

"She did turn the job down, once," piped up Lili. "Why would she suddenly take it?"

"Well, her first reason was family obligations. If someone could turn down such a high profile job in the beginning of the Taelons arrival, then why take it now?"

"I don't know," said Lili, and she tossed back the drink that Mia had brought her.

Liam happened to be looking out of one of the windows at that moment…

"Speak of the devil and she will appear," he whispered in surprise. Cooley had just walked by.

Deirdre strode briskly down one of the many roads of D.C., and she breathed the night air deeply. No matter her shape, night would always be the time she was most awake, most alive and vital. The cool air whipped through her now unbound hair, giving her the illusion of being airborne. Her thoughts strayed towards Bridget.

Her little, pretty sister, stuck in space, one talon-hand removed. The sight had nearly driven her to tears, and there was nothing to stop her now. Looking around, she glimpsed a small church. Holy ground; she would be safe there.

It was open, and she quickly entered, and sat in one of the pews. Weeping silently, she came to a decision. She knew that she would have to wait to get enough information to free Bridget, but that didn't mean she would go slowly.

Standing swiftly, she headed out of the church, and hailed a cab.

Liam had followed Sergeant Cooley as she had walked, but not into the church. He had been flabbergasted when he had seen tears streaming down her face, and had wondered what could have caused an implant to react in such a way. 

About twenty minutes later, he saw her exit the building, get into a taxi. He lost after that.

Seeing the vehicle speed off, he uttered one word.

"Damn."

Deirdre stood outside the Taelon embassy in Washington, and questioned the wisdom of her actions. If she told Da'an that she was really a gargoyle, that it was her little sister on his ship, and that she needed his help to save her…

That would leave her with no options if the whole plan blew up in her face.

Maybe, she thought, if it was someone else asking…

She smacked herself on the head. "Dunce! Deirdre Cooley doesn't need to talk to him. Deirdre the _gargoyle_ could!"

Working out the plan in her mind, she felt that it would work out well. As an implant, she would have access to Da'an any time, day or night.

Giving her access code, she marched in. To the ladies' room.

It took but a moment for her to change into the short tan breeches, tunic, and surcoat. Leather four fingered gauntlets followed. Her plain broadsword went into her belt. Briefly checking herself in the mirror, she began to undo the chain of spells that held her into her human guise.

It was a charm that could only be performed at night, and it went easiest when it took place at sunset or dawn. As it was, the pain of the shift would horrendous. 

With a gasp of pain, her feet went from five toed to three, and she rose up on the balls of her feet. A powerfully muscled tail whipped out behind her and her long, black and gray wings uncurled from her back. Her hands became talons, and her skin turned a charcoal gray. Her ears reshaped themselves into points, and a ridge of horns took the place of her eyebrows, while one large spike thrust itself up from between her eyes. Repressing the roar she would have normally have made, she gave a soft groan, and looked at her reflection. 

A true, almost monstrous gargoyle looked back at her. While most of her Clan had such a human appearance they were considered little more than humans with wings, she was as far as one could go and not be considered downright ugly.

Her gray, nearly black skin made her look like an ominous shadow, with wings so long and powerful that she could almost fly. Her face was all sharp plains and angles. She kept her hair, which fell to her tail, but she dwarfed most of the males in her Clan. She gained a foot when she was in her true form.

Grimacing at the sight, she turned and continued deeper into the heart of the embassy.

Liam had decided to head to the embassy after Cooley's disappearance to discuss the situation with Da'an. He wondered what the Taelon would do now that there was such an obvious watcher over them. He hoped that he wouldn't have to kill her.

Da'an reclined in his chair, resting in his energy stream. He had been pondering the meaning of the finding of a new, intelligent species on this world. The repercussions were more than he cared to think about. Yet, there they were.

What the scientists had learned just from studying her anatomy was staggering. The shear toughness of her tissues should have made her kind the dominant species of Earth, but there was no mention of them in any history. She seemed to be a creature out of myth.

It was frightening. 

These beings could possibly take on a Jaridian single-handedly, if what they had learned was true for the entire species, and…

Da'an realized that he was not alone in the chamber.

"Da'an," he heard uttered from a deep, soft alto to the entrance of the room.

He came to a sitting position, and was amazed at the creature he beheld there.

It was clearly one of the creature's species, only he realized that this particular specimen could have taken on several Jaridians at once, and there would be no doubt as to the winner.

"I would like to speak to you," it said, holding out its, her, hands, showing that she was unarmed. It had taken him a few seconds to notice the feminine features that marked most human females, and he thought, must hold true for this kind as well. 

"I would think that you are doing so already," Da'an replied, stalling for time. He was in a state of shock at the sight of one of the creatures simply walking into his audience chamber. That should have been impossible.

A ghost of a smile crossed her face. "Then, may I continue to do so?"

Deirdre could feel a smile curl her lips at the sight of the normally unflappable Companion so thoroughly flapped. The amusement she felt melted away when she recalled the reason for her being there.

"I would wish to ask," she grimaced at what she had to say next, but it was nothing less than the truth," no, beg for the release of the young one from imprisonment."

Da'an recovered a little of his old calm at what she was saying.

"Why should we?" he replied, even as the pity he had felt for her, and the fear, came back to him with clarity.

Deirdre wasn't aware of the look of pleading that showed on her face when she answered.

"She is barely a child! She didn't know what would happen when she left the safety of her home! Please, let me return her to her Clan, with her friend, so that they may live out their lives in peace."

"There can be no peace," Da'an answered, blinking slowly. He stood from his chair, and slowly approached her. "Not while this planet is in danger from the Jaridians. We need her, as she will provide us with information on how we can better survive their coming."

"What right do you have," growled the creature," to involve an innocent _child_ in your schemes!"

A Taelon will glow blue when it feels agitated. Da'an was totally unprepared for the blazing red that erupted from the, the, the _beast's_ eyes.

Feeling defensive about what his kind were doing, even if he was not condoning it, he said, "We have the right to save our kind!"

"So," both gargoyle and Taelon whirled around when they heard Kincaid enter, "The Companions will gain the world, at the loss of their souls."

Liam had been shocked when he had seen the creature speaking to Da'an. It had only taken a moment for him to hear what she was saying to him, however, and realize that she was pleading. From something that large to be asking for something, when she looked like she could have taken whatever she wanted from Da'an's hide, he felt pity wrench his heart. 

He wanted to help her.

Liam decided, that since this creature was attempting to be courteous Da'an, he would be so to her.

He put out his hand. "My name is Liam Kincaid, Da'an's protector. Who are you, and what are your kind called?"

Deirdre was more than a little surprised at how Liam had interrupted. Well, no harm in being polite.

"I am called Morrigan," she whispered softly, using an old nickname from college.

Liam's eyebrows rose. "The Celtic goddess of War?"

She smiled vaguely. "If you like."

She went on. "My species are called gargoyles."

"I heard you asking for the return of the child gargoyle," Liam said. "I think that we would like to help you with this matter, but, well, Da'an might not be the person to ask. The Synod has little faith in him at this time. You might have a better chance dealing with me first."

"Deal?" Deirdre asked softly, her eyebrow ridges furrowing. "What kind of a 'deal'?"

"I-"

"We would indeed like to help you," Da'an said suddenly, in an abrupt about face. "But there are many hindrances to be overcome. I am watched nearly continuously by the Synod leader, Zo'or. If she were to make an escape, then I would immediately be blamed, and any hope of a joining of humans and Taelons would be lost."

Deirdre looked at him in more than a little surprise at his frankness. She had often read about the amazing diplomatic skill that the North American Companion possessed, but he also seemed to hold something of the tactician, as well.

"If she could be rescued in such a way that there would be no way to put blame on you, would you be willing to go along?"

"Yes, I would."

"What are you planning?" Liam said suspiciously. He didn't like the face she was making.

A plan had begun to formulate itself in her mind as they had talked. It had slowly worked its way down, and had hatched when Liam had spoken. She grinned, taking both the Companion and his protector a back.

"I'll tell you later."

The two males stared, as she walked over to one of the virtual glass windows, and strode through. She unfurled her wings, and gave a little leap, landing on the wall of the balcony beyond. Then, she jumped, and glided away.

"That was very strange," came, surprisingly, from Da'an.

"That was more than strange. I don't think I like the idea of waiting to see what Morrigan is going to do," answered a dazed Liam.

"Yet, what choice do we have?"

It was a long time before either of them stopped feeling uneasy.

To be continued…

Comments? Questions?

   [1]: mailto:laraniadrake@yahoo.com



	2. Those Left Behind

****

Those Left Behind

Disclaimer: Gargoyles belong to Buena Vista, Highlander belongs to Rysher, and Earth: Final Conflict belongs to Tribune Entertainment. I make no money from this.

Liam and Da'an stood side by side, oddly alike in their stances. Both shocked, both confused.

"What just happened?" they heard a voice say from behind them.

They turned, to find Deirdre Cooley striding toward them.

"Who says anything happened? What are you doing here, anyway?" asked Liam.

"I went for a walk this evening, and saw something strange leave, coming from the embassy. As security is one of my jobs, I thought it best to come and investigate."

"It was nothing to concern you with," said Da'an, his serenity back in place.

"Are you certain?" she replied.

"Yes," the pale alien told her, turning back to his chair, and sitting. He reactivated the energy stream, cutting off any further conversation.

Liam smiled at the Companions tactics. They didn't need the newest implant to be nosing around were she was not wanted.

"Do you want me to take you back to your apartment?" Liam asked.

"No, I got here on my own feet, and that will be sufficient to get me back," Deirdre replied.

Liam grunted. "Good," he said under his breath, as the tall security chief left his presence. He wanted to go to Augur's and see if he could get any information on gargoyles, and some on Sergeant Deirdre Cooley.

"Sergeant _Cooley,_ did you say?" Augur asked, sounding incredulous. 

"Sergeant Deirdre Cooley. She was supposed to be-" was saying Liam, before he was cut off.

"Co-second with the real Liam Kincaid in the SI wars. I know. I knew the lady. In fact, she was the person who introduced Boone and me. Long story, which includes me, a stripper, and a large keg of beer. Anyway, this was before I had become the great genius that I am today."

"Modest, too," said Lili, who was sitting on stool by the computer console.

Augur gave her a dirty look. "As I was saying, I knew the lady. Only thing is, she died with Liam Kincaid, and the rest of Boone's platoon."

Upon arriving at Augur's, Liam had told his ally about the recent developments along the Taelon front. He had taken it all with his characteristic nonchalance when they got to the new implant's name. Then, the master hacker almost had stroke.

"The thing is, she can't be the real thing. Boone got drunk one evening when he came home from the wars. He told me about how most of his men died. He had a front row view of her death. She took maybe fifty rounds to the chest. He said that you could see through her. She looked like hamburger. This person could not be her," he ended emphatically.

"Then how could she have known that I wasn't Liam Kincaid?" Liam asked.

That got Augur. When he had created Liam's identity, he had made sure that there could be no one to identify him. In fact, the only person who could have was dead, and that person was William Boone. It was a given that everyone else from that doomed mission was deceased. 

"In fact," Augur continued, "I'll prove it." He walked briskly over to the console.

"Computer, bring up everything on Sergeant Deirdre Cooley."

On the blank screen, there flashed to life a picture. Granted, the woman on the screen looked a little younger, but that was only the result of life experience. For all intents and purposes, however, it was the same woman.

Liam choked.

"That's her, all right," Lili whispered, like saying it quietly would keep it from being real.

"Augur, are you sure that there was no way that this file could have been tampered with?" Liam said urgently.

Augur just gave him a look.

"Sorry."

Lili had started to scan the content of the file. "It's pretty much the same as the one that Cooley gave the Companions, except for the death part. This one states that she died along the platoon. There's nothing after that."

"So, since people don't come back from the dead, we can only assume that this new woman had to have had plastic surgery to change her appearance, then altered the files of the original, and **poof** you have a new identity. Ironic. The original may have been able to have pulled it off," stated Augur.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Liam, sounding like he wasn't tracking.

"She was no where as good as me, of course, but she was a talented hack, none the less. In fact, by payment of a really strange debt, of another, really, long boring story, I showed her how to change her personal files. She needed to create a life history to be able to get into college. Apparently, she didn't have one until then."

"You're saying that Deirdre Cooley didn't have any kind of background until you two met?" asked Lili, her voice rising.

"No. Most of what anybody knew about her was a clever forgery."

Well, that shot all their hopes that she was an innocent woman. Looks like they would have to kill her after all. Liam snorted, and looked back at the picture on the screen. "But someone already beat me to it," he mumbled.

Deirdre stood before Zo'or, on the bridge of the mother ship.

"You have something to report to me?"

She nodded. "A large creature, much like what the one already being held, was sighted leaving from the vicinity of Da'an's embassy. I went to ask what had happened, but Da'an said that it was none of my concern."

"I would like you to further your investigation of Da'an's activities. If I could bring this before the Synod, I would have more than enough evidence to expel Da'an from the Commonality."

"Why do you have such hatred toward Da'an?" she couldn't help herself from asking.

Zo'or gave her a look that could have scorched stone. It was full of a sly knowledge, overlying a bitter resentment.

"That is none of your concern," said the pale alien. His usual mask was back in place. Smug, full of superiority, and none too kind, but before it went back up, Deirdre thought that she had seen a flash of pain. It was a fleeting thing, and she couldn't be sure that she wasn't imagining it. 

"Leave me now. I wish to think on this," he dismissed her with a wave. 

Bowing, she left.

She walked the halls of the massive ship, until she came to the cell that contained her sister.

She gazed into the room, willing herself numb. It went against all her instincts, not to go in, wreck the room, kill all those that would hurt her Clan...

With a wrench, she pulled herself together. That was a different person, she told herself. I'm not a killer; that was a lifetime ago. 

Deirdre's CVI played back all that had happened.

She had been with the rest of her platoon. They had gotten a few vague reports of the enemy in the area, but those had been denied later. Too bad they hadn't listened.

She put her hand to her chest, as pain remembered blasted phantom holes through her, again, and again, and again....

There is no pain after death, she thought clinically, later, only later. After waking up, in a mass grave of her comrades, then crawling out, in the rain. The smell, oh Dragon, did she remember the smell, the sewer stench that comes from the empty bowels after dying, and it was on herself.

Deirdre had been found, later, by the enemy, and put into a cell. Then she had suffered her second death, by gang rape.

It had driven her mad. She had returned to her gargoyle shape as darkness had fallen, and she had gone berserk. She could feel the slippery, slimy feel of a human's entrails as her talons had speared through his abdomen, and reached to the spine, and snapped it.

In the end, that had been the only reason Boone, and maybe some others, had survived after being captured. She had killed them all. For so long afterwards she had wandered...

A hand touched her arm, snapping her free of the memory.

Turning, she saw Da'an, looking at her with an expression that might have been called concern.

Bowing her head, she made the formal hand gestures.

The Companion gently placed his hand on her face. When he pulled his delicate fingers away, they were wet.

"Why do you cry?" Da'an asked, sounding oddly curious.

"I was trapped in a memory of the war, Da'an," she covered, grateful that she didn't have to lie. "It was of my platoon's death. I fear that I have not fully mastered my CVI yet."

"Then, it would be well indeed if you were to practice."

"Yes, Da'an," she replied, and beat a hasty retreat.

Da'an looked back into the room housing the young creature. The young gargoyle, he corrected himself. No living being should have to go through the things that this child was being subjected to now. 

Glancing toward Cooley's back, he wondered if his kind would ever be called to account for their actions. Da'an thought of Morrigan, and he wondered who would do the accounting.

It was the next day, and Da'an had a special meeting at the UN to discuss a new breakthrough that the Companions had made in the field of aerospace. It was a hybrid of human technology and Taelon, and would apply mainly to the portal project.

Deirdre was in charge of security. Liam thought his teeth ached at the thought.

To his surprise, everything went smoothly. He felt greatly relieved at that. Despite not knowing who this person was, at least she knew her business.

Liam and Deirdre were escorting Da'an out of the building to Lili's shuttle, when he noticed her jerk like she had been shocked. He saw her make surreptitious glances all around, like she was waiting for someone to appear. He wasn't surprised, then, when a tall blond man walked out of the shadows.

"Da'an, I need to speak to you," the nameless person stated firmly, like he had every right to say such.

Da'an stopped, and gave him the look he reserved only for Zo'or on a bad day.

Liam glanced back, and saw that Deirdre's hand was edging into her coat, and the look on her face was a twisted mask of loathing.

"My name is Jon Castaway," said the handsome, tall man. "You need to know about the demons, Da'an. The whole world needs to know about them."

Castaway reached out, trying to take the Companion's arm, when Cooley interceded. Blocking the man, she said in a cold voice," Then you're going to have to make an appointment, Mr…" She finished the last sentence in a hiss, which Liam couldn't make out. Whatever it was she said, though, it turned the blond man pale. He flinched, and looked like he wanted to try for something under his own long coat.

Stand off.

"I agree with Sergeant Cooley,' Da'an said finally, breaking the tense silence. "If you wish to speak to me, it would be prudent to speak first to my attache. Liam would set up an appropriate time for us to meet."

Smiling tightly, the man bowed, and gave a look of pure hatred to Deirdre. 

"Yes," he said, sounding very calm. "We will meet again."

After boarding the shuttle, Liam grabbed Deirdre's arm.

"What the hell was that about?"

Her lips had pinched together when she responded with, "How the hell should I know?"

They glared at each other.

"I, too, would like to know the meaning of that encounter," interjected Da'an.

"He was some quack that I heard about a few years ago," Deirdre mumbled. "I don't know why he's out of the mental institution."

"I've never heard of him," Liam said suspiciously.

"He blew up some buildings a few decades ago. It's better for all of us that he be forgotten."

"He almost seemed to have known you," the Companion probed.

"My life closed twice, before its close, and yet remains to see, if _immortality _ unveil a third event to me," she answered him.

At Da'an's blank look, she said, "Emily Dickinson. Maybe we met in a past life, I don't know. I hadn't met him in this one until then."

"That was hardly a satisfactory explanation."

Deirdre sighed. "It's the only one I have to give."

After returning to her loft, Deirdre wondered about the newest complication in her life. 

In her travels, she had heard about the Hunter, but there had been nothing to suggest that he was an immortal. Deirdre shivered, thinking that she would have to fight him eventually.

"But not tonight," she said aloud, and picked up her coat. Suddenly the walls of her apartment seemed much too confining. She needed to get out, maybe get something to eat. With a longing look out her window, she decided that it wouldn't be a good idea to stretch her wings. She needed all her energy for what would happen later.

Augur was in his usual booth at the Flat Planet café. He was alone, and was looking into his latest art theft, er, deal.

He was therefore caught flat footed when Deirdre strode through the door.

"Oh, boy," he mumbled, getting a good look at her. Even though he knew that it was impossible for her to be the real thing, the resemblance _was_ uncanny. He followed her with his eyes to the bar, where she ordered the soup of the day. That was even more unnerving to the techno-wizard, because that was something he would have expected the real Deirdre to do. She also didn't order any alcohol, another thing that was distressingly in character. So, this fraud had done her homework.

Interest piqued, he decided to go and speak to her. It would be refreshing to talk to a con artist as talented as himself.

Walking up behind her, he tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey, beautiful," he said in his best pick up voice.

The implant turned her head, her mouth full of soup, saw who it was, and inhaled, choking.

Pounding her on the back, Augur replied, chuckling, "Sorry, but you looked like you had seen a ghost."

Taking a gulp of what Augur thought was milk, (_milk? Who went to the Flat Planet and ordered milk?_) Deirdre stopped her coughing fit, her eyes wide as plates, mouth working soundlessly.

"Augur?" she finally said, softly. She wiped her mouth with a napkin, and swiveled her stool around. Trying very hard to come up with something pithy, the best she could do was, "What in the blazes are you doing here? Pretending to be a neon sign?"

"Aren't you supposed to be dead?" Augur answered, wondering how far this charade would go on. He knew she wasn't the real Deirdre. She couldn't be.

Giving him one of her frightening familiar half-smiles, he started to doubt his conviction that there were no such things as ghosts.

"Yes, I am supposed to be dead, but I've never been all that good at doing what I was _supposed_ to do, remember?"

It had been an old joke between them at MIT. While in class Augur, who had been a far different person then, had argued by the book physics, Deirdre had always had a mystical bend to her. She would say that so long as people refused to use their imaginations, they wouldn't be able to discover anything new. It had been one of the greatest irritations that either of them had ever had, but one of the most fun. 

Anger rushed into Augur's mind, as the thought of someone using his old friend's identity came back to him.

"Who are you really," he demanded.

Deirdre sighed. "The undying. The death that comes on the wings of night."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he called after her, as she drained the rest of her soup, and left.

After leaving the Flat Planet cafe, Deirdre sneaked into the embassy. She would need access to the Companions databases if the plan she had was going to be pulled off.

It was later that night, when she boarded the mother ship.

"So, you are certain that Da'an is blatantly helping Liberation?"

"Yes, Zo'or," Deirdre replied, face bland.

"And what proof do you have of this?"

In actuality, she had no idea if he was helping the Liberation or not. She had promised not to harm the Taelon, but she needed some form of distraction. This would do quite nicely.

She handed him a disk that had Da'an and Liam talking. It had been child's play to redo it with magic and her limited computer abilities, into something marginally incriminating. When she was done with her night's mischief, it would revert to something completely innocuous. 

The gloating on the Companion's face was disgusting as he took the disk from her hand. For a few seconds, Deirdre felt the wild urge to swipe her talons across that superior smirk of his.

Then rip out his throat, sink her hind claws into his belly, and shred his innards to bits…

_No,_ she told herself. _That isn't me. I am not a monster that kills for the shear joy of it!_

Swallowing convulsively, she regained control of the beast that still lived within her. _I am a civilized being. I will not loose control._

_Who am I kidding?_

Deirdre must have blanked out, because she didn't remember being dismissed, and she found herself walking down the miles of corridors to the cell that was holding Bridget.

The little gargoyle was in a loosing battle. While they had not tried to implant her, yet, to get her to talk, they were slowly extracting all the information that they could get from her frail body. She had lost more than a talon, now. One of her wings had been so bisected that it was well nigh unusable. Her left eye was also gone, the result of the many scientists' attempts to discover why they glowed.

Deirdre could hear a soft whimper, and thought it came from inside the cell.

No, she realized. It's coming from me.

Liam had set up the appointment with the reputed madman, Jon Castaway. He had tried to find prior information on the man, but none had been forthcoming.

It was with little regret, that he chose to put off the meeting.

He heard a persistent beeping. It was his global.

Pulling it from his pocket, he slung it open. "Kincaid here."

It was Da'an. 

"Liam, I have urgent news," the North American Companion said without preamble.

Liam's eyebrows went up at the Companion's tone. It was worried.

"Apparently, our fears have been correct, and Sergeant Cooley has found evidence proving our involvement with the Resistance."

Liam choked. "What has she got?"

"A recording of us speaking about the activities of Jonathan Doors."

"What was the date on the recording?"

"This afternoon."

"But-" thoughts of what they had actually been doing drifted into his mind. He had in fact been getting security arrangements together for a conference between Da'an and several companies negotiating for a hybrid technology contract together. He hadn't even seen the Companion until his call.

Just them, he heard Sandoval call out, "Kincaid!"

Whirling around, he turned to run. Still speaking to Da'an, he shouted," It had to be a set up! We didn't even have time to talk, let alone do anything with the Liberation!" Gritting his teeth, he knew he needed to get Augur. If anyone could prove that the recording of whatever it was had been a fraud, he would.

"Contact Lili, I need to get some help. Get her out of the way."

Back on board the ship, Deirdre had been waiting in one of the many alcoves that organic technology seemed to want to produce. She smiled, as one of the many little disasters she had begun started to play themselves out.

Zo'or smirked, his favorite expression, and looked at a humiliated Da'an.

"I have been waiting for this moment for a long time, Da'an. I now have the evidence I need to have you stripped of your position as North American Companion, and to destroy all those humans that would dare defy-

Then, various sirens started going off.

Looking more disappointed about not being able to give his speech than whatever disaster might me unfolding, Zo'or snapped "What is happening?"

"It appears that several shuttles have appeared out of ID drive…" the duty implanted began calmly enough, but his voice gained pitch and volume as he continued- "They aren't of Taelon make- Son of a!"

"It's the Jaridians!"

The whole ship went into full-blown panic at that.

Liam, Lili and Augur had just arrived on board before the hysteria hit. They were running flat out to the bridge by the time they got there.

"Da'an, what's happening?" 

"It would appear that the Jaridians had gotten access to interdimensional drive sooner than anticipated." Even the serene Da'an sounded frightened.

The alarms, which were already blaring, took on a more intense note.

"What?" Liam shouted, and sprang for the console.

"The ship's ID drive is going critical!"

Deirdre nodded to herself. Now, it was time to get to business. Her computer hexes wouldn't last under much scrutiny. 

She quickly jogged to the cell holding Bridget. A blast with her skrill knocked out the usual guards, before they even saw that she was there.

Unlocking Bridget's restraints, she pulled out a vial of smelling salts. Waving them under Bridget's nose, the female gargoyle quickly came awake.

"Wha-"

"It's okay, Bridget," Deirdre reassured her. "It's-"

"Yer one o' them!" croaked the prone female. "Yer gonna, yer gonna'"

"I'm a friend o' yur sister's," Deirdre covered, seeing that she had forgotten that Bridget wouldn't recognize her.

The poor girl was so out of it that she didn't question it. 

She carefully de-tangled the various monitors and lifted Bridget into her arms. It took barely a moment, in which she gave the young one the hug she had ached to give her.

"Little 'un," she whispered, smoothing Bridget's night-dark hair, "I am so, so sorry."

Augur had ran to the engine room, intent on trying to repair the drive, but when he got there, he was brought up short. 

The room was completely quiet.

No one there had noticed anything wrong, and the drive was in perfect condition.

Liam and Lili, who had been right behind, slammed into his back.

"Ouch!" he exclaimed, as he nearly fell on his nose.

Liam ignored Augur, with his eyes bugging out when he looked at the engine.

"Nothing's wrong."

Augur then went over to one of the many consoles, rudely pushing the normal operator, who with the rest of the engineers, had been staring at the new arrivals.

Augur easily hacked into the Taelon system. While he thought that the computer was operating normally, he started to run a debugging program. The alarms immediately ceased.

"It was all a hoax," Augur said in amazement.

"Well, save the back patting until we get to the bridge. We need to stop the Taelons from exiling Da'an!" shouted back Liam, as he turned and left.

"I hate this part," Deirdre mumbled softly, as she hid her little sister. Bridget had again fallen unconscious, and was slumbering deeply.

Carefully pulling out a small pinch of salt and herbs, she tossed them into the air, and chanted softy, this time in Gaelic. It was an illusion spell, one that extended to all the senses, and should hide her while.

Further narrowing her concentration, Deirdre stared at her left hand, and it blurred into gargoyle shape. With all the force she could put into it, she rammed it into her own chest.

Her lungs tried desperately to sob in air, resulting in a horrific sucking noise. Trying to stay on her feet, she stumbled away, to tell the rest of the crew that the creature had escaped.

Liam was made haste to the bridge, and was in time to see Zo'or try again to redirect attention to the accusations of Da'an. 

"He didn't do anything," Liam stated quickly.

No one paid him any mind. The general chaos had not in the least abated, and humans and Taelons were running around like mad.

Some of the drones had just figured out that it was all some sort of computer glitch, and were trying to restore order. Many of their Companion counter parts were not as quick to catch on.

"We're all going to die!"

No one knew which Taelon said that, when Liam bellowed, "IT WAS ALL A COMPUTER MALFUNCTION!"

Silence.

"What are you talking about?" said Zo'or, who was trying to regain control of the situation.

"I mean, as soon as a debugging program was run, the alarms in the engine room ceased. I'm betting that if you try it on the bridge sensors, these ghosts that have everyone so scared will turn out to be nothing."

Looking greatly annoyed, Zo'or directed one of the drones to do so, and immediately, all became calm.

Stunned, but able to bring back some of his old arrogance, Zo'or stated, "Now that this sham has been uncovered, and we will find out who is responsible, we will examine the evidence that has been uncovered."

Whipping out the recording that Sergeant Cooley had given him, he connected it to the data stream, the Synod and all present watching intently.

All it contained was a Da'an and Liam discussing the days security arrangements. From last week.

Everyone present gaped.

"You would bring us here to incriminate Da'an with something as mundane as his security?" said one of the anonymous figures of the Synod, with a note of mockery in his voice.

"I, what happened?" the Synod leader garbled out, not really believing what he was seeing. He had just seen the evidence against Da'an with this own eyes! How did his implant get such falsified information? 

Humiliated, Zo'or stood, and left the room.

Lili and Augur were on their way to the shuttle bay, to get Augur out of the way. Augur was still more than a little in trouble from his last stay aboard the mother ship, so getting him out ASAP was Lili's priority at the moment. 

Hearing her global bleep, she whipped it out. It was Liam.

"Marquette, go."

"Everything's seemed to calm down, but we don't know who or what caused the malfunction. Da'an's been cleared, because the evidence Zo'or had seems to have been erased, or something. It's too strange to go into at the moment."

"Right," she answered, "I'm getting Augur out of the way, now, so- Oh my God!" 

"Help-" Deirdre croaked, and fell over after shambling into the hallway. Augur, looking as shell shocked as Lili felt, ran over. 

Coughing, with blood spurting from her mouth, she hacked out, "I was in the lab… The creature, it escaped."

"I'm going to call the medical bay," Lili whispered, hearing Liam shout over the global, "What's going on?"

Shutting down the global with Kincaid still shouting, asking what was going on, she shut it down, and rang a desperate call down to the medical bay. 

Augur was gingerly touching her throat, and looked back up at Lili. He shook his head no.

"Oh, no," she moaned. She may not have liked the bitch, but to die like that…

Lili's eyes widened as she remembered what Deirdre had gasped out. The gargoyle was on the loose. A creature that could easily create havoc, running around…

Drawing her gun, she motioned for Augur to stay in one of the shuttles.

"Stay here. We need to keep you out of sight."

"What about her?" he asked, looking down at Deirdre's dead body.

"I guess we get her out of the way first," she sighed, and grimaced. Lili wanted to be out hunting down that thing before it got to anyone, but it seemed… disrespectful just to leave her there. So, she and Augur picked her up by her heels, and drug her into an adjoining room, and Augur hid.

For a long time, she didn't know how long her lay there. It just hurt too much to move.

With a soft sob, and a louder groan, Bridget awakened. When she remembered what had happened, she wished that she had not.

She couldn't let the Taelons get her again. She couldn't. She would kill herself first.

Scrambling to her feet, she lurched out of the tiny alcove she had been hidden in, and out into the ship.

Augur was sitting in one of the many shuttles sitting in the bay, wondering how long it would be until Lili got back. Sure, this might be more important, but anything that took time away from him, was, well, annoying.

Just then, he heard a loud moan and rustle from somewhere. Feeling decidedly nervous, Augur craned his neck around, hoping he wouldn't be spotted.

He saw a shadow scurry out of his peripheral vision.

His heart thudding in his chest, he lurched around to see what was going on. 

Nothing.

Going back to what he was doing, trying to convince himself that it had been a false alarm, he suddenly remembered that the shadow had left the room they had left Cooley in.

Feeling like a deer in headlights, he stared at the room, and didn't move.

When Deirdre woke up from death, this time, it was with the sure

knowledge that something was wrong.   
Lurching up, she skulked out of the room she had somehow gotten into, she began to unchain the spells controlling her form. This time, she didn't hold back, and a haunting roar reverberated throughout the corridors of the mother ship. It had the elements of a tiger's roar, with an eerie, banshee-like counterpoint to it that sent icy fingers through the hearts of all that heard it.

Dropping on all fours, she sprinted to the place she had left her sister.

She was gone.

"NOOOO!"

Augur couldn't stand it any longer. He had to see what had happened.

Getting out of the shuttle, he entered the room where they had stashed Deirdre's body.

The lights were off, and he thought he could make out an outline of the body.

"See?" he chuckled to himself, despite the creepy feeling anyone would have had if they were in a room with a corpse. "She's just lying on the floor, right over-" he reached over to find the light switch, and, oddly enough, there was one- "there."

There was nobody there. There was no body at all.

Turning, Augur ran like a scared rabbit. 

Liam started down to the hanger bay, hoping that whatever had happened, he would be in time. It was then that he heard the howl.

In all the memories he had from his fathers, and his mother, nothing in them could compare with the shear fury that he heard in this voice. It rang in his bones like a death omen.

Running now, Kincaid knew who had been behind the strangeness of this night, and headed to the labs where the young gargoyle had been held.

Augur also heard the booming wail. It made him run faster. He was turning a corner, when-

_SLAM_

He ran full tilt into something huge.

Gasping, he wondered for a moment when the boogey man had gotten out of the closet.

It was tall, with pale wings, and was- it was wearing a dress?

Shaking his head to clear it, he realized that it was not the boogey man he was facing, but a female, a female whatever and that it had just escaped the Taelons. 

"You poor devil," he mumbled, seeing the obvious evidence of what had been done to her. Hearing her whimper, he guessed the right thing to do would be to get her out of there. His mind went through a rapid set of plans, then finally settled on helping her to the shuttle bay. He would explain to Lili after they were back at the church. Walking over, he slung the swooning creature's arm over his shoulder, and tried to make his ponderous way back to where he had come from, thoughts of the undead far from his mind. 

Of course, they didn't get that far before they were captured by the security teams.

Lili had basically screamed over the global that the creature had escaped, and so Sandoval had shown up with several security teams to start a systematic search of the ship. Lili joined in, her gun ready, and they began to deliberately stalk their prey. After tonight's disasters, the Synod would not take kindly to having their prize escape.

Kincaid was still on his way when he heard the sound on claws scraping across metal. He barely had time to dodge to one side before Morrigan slashed past him.

"Morrigan, stop!" he called after her. To his surprise, she did.

Whirling in a way that made him dizzy just to watch, she got back on her hind feet. Distractedly, he noticed that she had left furrows from her talons scoring the floor.

"Are you the one behind all the strange stuff tonight?" he yelled, feeling really pissed. 

Before she could answer, he eyes lit up, and she reached for him.

Gasping and lunging back, he tried to get out of her way, when she grabbed his shoulder and tossed him to the side like he was tumbleweed. It was just in time, because a skrill blast had been aimed for his head. Ducking and rolling, the female gargoyle got back to her feet, to face the person that had fired on her. It was Sandoval.

Lili was with him. 

"Don't use deadly force on it unless necessary," ordered the attaché to the rest of his contingent. "Get it."

Liam wanted to curse, because now he would have to fight the gargoyle. 

Smiling, Morrigan answered Sandoval grimly, "You mean you guys are going to play fair? I'm touched."

With an easy split kick, she took two of the seven-member force down. "To bad for you."

She bared her teeth in a snarl, and went down to all fours again. Her tail lashed out, and dropped another security guard. 

The remaining humans, including Sandoval rushed her. She charged them, and she had the mass to take such a hit. 

It reminded Liam of pins on a bowling alley. 

That took out two more of the drones, leaving Sandoval, two drones and Lili. 

Pulling up into a fighting stance, she using a crescent kick on one of the drones.

Sandoval fired his skrill, which slammed her into the deck.

Smirking, Sandoval comment, "You may have great strength, but the wonders of Taelon science are beyond a brute like you."

Deirdre tried to get up, but the blast had broken her back. Even as she could feel the pins and needles feeling of her healing factor take over, she was dragged to her feet. "Pitiful. Take her to the bridge."

Lili, Liam and a drone were all that were left, so they hoisted her arms over their shoulders. Liam noticed that her lower half was dragging. He whispered to her, under his breath, "I think your back is broken."

Mumbling back, Deirdre whispered," No crap, Sherlock." 

Augur was whispering his apologies to Bridget as they were taken to the bridge. Apparently Da'an wanted to speak to them.

When they entered the bridge, Augur was in for a shock. If he had thought the pitiful creature that he had been helping was the boogey man, boy, he had thought wrong.

While the sight that greeted him was clearly of the same breed, he knew that he had met the boogey woman. Huge, black as night, with massive wings, he knew that it had to be something out of a nightmare. It was then that he heard his charge's soft cry, "D-d-Dee-"

Deirdre didn't know if she had died at all when she was being manhandled to the bridge, but she had to have been out of it for a few moments. 

Zo'or had regained his sense of self-importance quickly, and was back in his chair. Da'an was looking at her sorrowfully, as if he was mourning her death.

She had stopped struggling, much to Liam's and Lili's relief. Her back finished healing.

Deirdre saw out the of the corner of her eye-

"BRIDGET!" she roared. _"**Now, let her go**!"_

With an ease that **definitely** surprised her captors, she flung Liam and Lili away, and ran over, trying to get her little sister away from those beasts. It only registered vaguely that she was being supported by Augur, but was brought up short by the dozens of skrills being pointed in Bridget's direction.

"Now," said the calm voice of Zo'or, as Augur was made to drop Bridget, and she was jerked out before him. "What is it about this creature that you would spend so much effort to get her back?"

While she wasn't being held, Deirdre held rock still, and growled.

"How many of your kind are there?" Zo'or asked.

Deirdre said nothing.

"Guard, beat this one," he pointed to Bridget, "until the larger one speaks."

One of the drones came over, and kicked the already wounded gargoyle in the gut. Again.

Bridget screamed.

The guard made a hammer fist.

There was a loud crunching noise.

Bridget moaned.

Suddenly, Deirdre wasn't on a Taelon ship anymore. She was on a jungle. She had died, again. She could feel her guards, as she screamed for mercy, death, anything. She could feel them using her, and using her, and-

Something snapped in Deirdre's mind.

She swung around, and dived at the guard holding Bridget, her talons sinking into one of his eye sockets.

Flinging the dead body to the ground, she chose her next target, and lunged.

Everyone could see that she didn't care about saving anyone anymore. She was killing, just to be killing.

Liam ducked as one of the flung bodies skimmed his head. He saw her going after everybody, and there was no sense at all to the way that she was fighting. She had gone totally berserk.

He crawled over to Bridget. He shook her hard, having no time to be gentle.

She moaned, and her eyes fluttered open. Screaming in her ear, Kincaid yelled," Can you reason with her?"

"Who?" she asked, before fear of who she was talking to could get to her.

"Your sister." He pointed.

"Dear- God," she squeaked. "I've never seen her like this!"

Dead and wounded drones lay everywhere, some still trying to get up and fight, most laying there limp.

In all the growling, he couldn't hear what Bridget yelled at her. Or, he couldn't have heard it right.

Deirdre froze, not believing what she heard. How could her little sister be here, out in the middle of nowhere?

Snapping back to reality, Deirdre slumped wearily. When she turned to Liam and Bridget, her face was haunted, and almost gaunt.

"How much?" she mumbled, looking at her hands. Her bloody talons.

"How much blood will be on my hands, when it's all over?"

The elder gargoyle's knees gave way, and she hit the deck. Bridget just looked at her.

"Sister, I want to go home," she said tearfully.

Da'an whispered to them," Then go. No one will stop you."

"That is what you think! You think I will just let you let them go, Da'an, then you have another thing coming!" snarled Zo'or, rage contorting his face. He had picked up one of the energy weapons on the ground. He aimed it at Da'an.

"YOU THINK THAT I'LL LET YOU BETRAY YOUR OWN KIND?"

He fired.

There was no way that Deirdre or Liam could have been fast enough to save him. Both tried, but they were too far away.

As they both lunged over, another, pale body dived at Da'an, and knocked him over, taking the bolt of deadly energy herself.

"OOF!" they all heard, as Bridget's body flew back.

"_NOOOOOOOO-_" 

The little gargoyle hit the ground.

Crying, Deirdre scrambled over. "Bridget, oh, little sister, please, no-"

She gathered the young one to her, and stroked her hair. "I'm sorry," she choked, "I'm so, so sorry."

"Tell Ma and Da that I love them, please," whispered a small, soft voice.

Bridget took a deep breath, and the life went out of her.

Tears streaming down her face, Deirdre stood, and threw back her head.

"AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Bowing her head back over her sister, she picked her up.

Lili had disarmed the Synod leader after Bridget's save. He was standing by one of the virtual glass windows, looking sullen.

"Hear this," the tall female gargoyle intoned. "My kind are not to be touched by the likes of you, Zo'or. The First Race has never been at your kind's beck and call, and we never will. Do something like this again, and you will have the wrath of all the Clans on your head. So be it," she closed her wings around the seemingly peaceful Bridget, like a shroud.

She turned and left.

No one thought to stop her.

Later

"I wonder what will become of these events," Da'an said quietly, speaking to Liam.

Liam shivered. While most of the damage had already been cleaned up, the leftover bodies, the shear number of them, had told him that it would not be a good idea to get the rest of the gargoyles angry.

"I don't know, Da'an."

Lili walked over.

Something occurred to Liam. "Lili, have you seen Cooley?"

"That was something I never got around to telling you about. She's dead."

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Why is that the first thing anybody asks? Of course, I'm sure. I saw the body. So did Augur."

"Somebody say my name?"

"HOW-" Lili sputtered.

"How what?" responded Deirdre.

"I saw you dead!"

Looking put out, Deirdre answered, "Lili, I haven't been on the ship all night. Check the records if you don't believe me. Although, considering what I've heard happened here, you may have seen anything."

Lilli carefully backed up, and left the room.

"Would you believe her?" Deirdre made a _tsk_-ing sound with her tongue.

"I would like to ask you about the recording that you gave to Zo'or this evening," interjected Da'an, gesturing gracefully with his pale hands.

"Oh, that? I was instructed to find any information on you that might connect you to liberation activities. That showed up on my doorstep, and since it looked official, I presented it to Zo'or. What he did with it later is his fault."

Looking pleased, Da'an dismissed her.

Deirdre was able to hold it together long enough to leave the mother ship.

When she got back to her apartment, she broke down, and wept.

She was still stuck as an implant, the Hunter was out there, and worst of all, she had failed to save her sister.

Deirdre wished someone would show up to take her head right then.

Fin.

Comments?


	3. Dead and Gone, or Not?

****

Dead and Gone, or Not

Disclaimer: Gargoyles belongs to Buena Vista, Earth: Final Conflict belongs to Tribune Entertainment, and Highlander belongs to Rysher. I make no money from this. 

When William Boone awoke, he had no idea where he was.

He remembered having a strange dream, in which he was submerged in a tank. He could see Zo'or, and-

He had felt the way a person does when they come into contact with static electricity. Then, a painful jolt, and-

Nothing.

Desperately, because his CVI should have made remembering what had happened instantly, he dredged his mind for what had happened.

Nothing. It was a complete blank.

Panic hit him then, and for several moments all he could do was listen to the rapid beating of his heart. Then sense reasserted itself.

If he had been a captive of the Taelons, he certainly wouldn't have come to in a human bed. 

Carefully taking in his surroundings, he noticed the Spartan nature of the decorations. It wasn't completely bare, though. He saw several displays of weaponry, most of which were Medieval. No painting, pictures or posters were on the walls. 

Trying to move, he gave a soft groan. His muscles where stiff, like he had lain on his side the entire night. 

Rolling over, he spotted something that surprised him. There was an orchid growing over in one of the corners. It was the only living thing he had seen so far, and it was one that his beloved wife would have itched to get a hold of. In fact, it was the only thing that lent any beauty to the room at all.

Sitting, Boone realized something else, as well.

Underneath the blankets, he was nude.

Scrambling around, he found that someone had laid out some clothing that approximated his size. He was getting dressed, when a strange sensation his him.

It wasn't something that could really be described, even as his mind tried desperately to come to some sort of analysis. It felt faintly like static electricity. Then was a kind of buzzing that was in him and around him. He rang like a gong, resonating to something that was coming closer.

Then, that something came into the room.

When Boone saw who it was, he couldn't help but scream.

Deirdre had been on the mother ship twice since her little sister had been killed. 

She hadn't been having any trouble recently with acting out the role of an implant. Despite being immortal, she was dead inside. When she had come back from the wars, the Clan had been her purpose. She had lived for them, and her little sister had been her laughter, no matter the headache she had caused.

She knew that now that the Taelons knew about the existence of the gargoyles, she had to keep them from finding out about them. That was all that kept her going. 

Zo'or hadn't questioned her information. He had trouble believing that an implant, especially so new a one, could have done anything against his wishes. Anything odd about her behavior could be attributed to the rest of the strange things that had happened that evening.

She had been lucky, damn it. Why hadn't that luck rub off on her sister?

It was her fault. She had been impatient, and it had gotten her sister killed.

Looking down at her hands, she saw that they had balled up into fists.

Carefully unknotting them, she noticed absently that her fingernails had cut holes in her palms. Blood dripped down her wrists. 

"Doesn't matter," she said aloud, surprising herself. She hadn't spoken much in the past month and a half. She watched with bitter amusement as both palms healed in seconds. 

"What doesn't matter?" 

She hadn't noticed when Liam had waltzed down the arched and curved corridor towards her.

She wanted to hiss, but it was as useless as everything else was. She just didn't care.

Liam flinched back from the face that met his. While her implant should have made her as content as a cat in cream on the mother ship, her eyes were as opaque as onyx and dull as limestone.

When she didn't answer, he got the hint and left. He had to arrange a meeting with both Nightstone Industries and Xanatos Inc. 

Wandering around the halls some more, Deirdre came back to the cell that had held her sister for so long. Grimacing at the memories her CVI was playing back for her, she wondered how long she would stay in the black mood that the Celts were famous for.

Quickly moving on, she felt it. It was the strange buzz, tingle, and gong-like feel that she had whenever she was in the presence of an immortal…

Or not. It was faded out, like an ill-tuned radio station. She had never met someone that was a pre-immortal, but this was what she was told it felt like.

She was now in rooms where most of the suspension chambers where kept. All around her, the eerie sight of humans, and a few Taelons, in a blue liquid surrounded her, many with several types of monitors attached. 

"Dragon. I just stepped into Frankenstein's lab!" she let out in a hoarse garble.

Pinching herself to make sure that she wasn't dreaming, she tried very hard to keep from staring, and quickly scouted around. Whoever it had been that she had sensed, it wasn't one of the people in the tanks. There was nothing to make her feel that it was one of them.

Searching further, Deirdre wondered if something had happened with her CVI that was making her mind imagine the sense of an immortal. She was about to give up, when she crossed into the room with those subjects in deep storage.

Deciding it would be easier to look at the "patient's" charts, she carefully worked her way into the computer system, and ran down the roster.

She came across a very familiar name, and almost fell over.

William Boone.

_Whatthefraggin'hell?_

Taking a deep breath, she tried to order her mind to get into his file. That failing, she took several deep breaths. Sitting, breathing like a bellows, she finally got enough control that she was able to open it.

He had been seriously injured fighting Ha'gel, but Taelon science was more than adequate for such. What killed him was Zo'or.

There was a recording of his demise. She watched it, and was grateful that she was already drained of emotion.

Zo'or was entering a room. His expression was one of shear rage, and envy. Then, a mask dropped over his eyes, and he put his hand to the glass of the tank housing the brutally wounded William. There was a swirling of light sparkles, like glitter, or fireflies. Then, there was nothing in the tank. For about five seconds.

No one could have been more shocked than Zo'or as the sparkles of light coalesced back into the form of William Boone. Watching the faces of both Zo'or and Ronald Sandoval, she could see that shock was too mild a word. Flabbergasted, now, that would work.

Deirdre held her breath as they checked his vital signs. There were none. Not able to explain what had happened to Boone, they put him in deep storage.

Looking around, wishing she could speak the Taelon language, which she couldn't even speak the name of; she hunted, and found something that _smelled_ familiar. She smiled, thankful that her gargoyle sense of smell seemed to still be working.

_What the hell am I doing? _

Stopping short, she wondered if this rescue mission would turn out like her last one. 

_Think things through, this time!_

Stepping back, she wondered how she would get him out. Deirdre had no doubts as to that he was the one that she had sensed. After seeing his records, there was nothing that could have convinced her otherwise.

_Okay, now, think_._ I need to get him off the ship. Duh. How tightly is this place monitored?_

Since there was no one in the room, it was rather obviously not. She had been in there for the past twenty minutes. If someone were actively aware of what was going on, she would have been routed out.

_Step two: find the mechanical surveillance._

Nonchalantly leaving the room, she went to the nearest computer interface. With somewhat less than Augur's skill, she hacked into the system. 

_Congratulations, fly-girl, there is no artificial surveillance of the room._

Now, she knew that she needed to get him out. How was the interesting part. She couldn't go dragging a dead body down to one of the shuttles.

_Okay, check the duty roster._

There was a shift change in a few hours. She had asked for piloting lessons from Marquette after becoming an implant. It was conceivable that she could get him onto one when the shift changed. Being an implant had its uses.

Now, the hard part: waiting.

For the next three hours, she went back down to earth to get something that would fit her former commander. When he woke up, he would not like it if had no clothes. What really had Deirdre in a bind was the question of how she was going to break the news to him that he was an immortal. Heavens knew, she had enough trouble excepting it, and she had been a mage for several years when it had happened. 

Taking the shirt, pants and underwear back to her apartment, she then boarded the mother ship again. It was then that Kincaid found her.

"Sergeant!" he barked, catching up with her. She had been walking briskly down the corridor, trying to act as if she was on an errand, so she wouldn't be disturbed. 

__

It doesn't seem to have worked.

"We will be having a meeting at the Aerie Building, later tonight, and you and I will be Da'an's representatives. The two companies are Nightstone Industries and Xanacorp, for technology rights involving the portal project."

Frowning, Deirdre wondered if she would have enough time to do what she had planned. Sighing, she promised herself that she wouldn't put it off. She owed Boone too much.

Liam gave her an odd look when she didn't answer right away. Then all his suspicions about her came back to him. He didn't know who she was, or what she wanted. The unformed question in the back of his mind, which had just now come to the fore, was if her CVI was working properly. 

"I have some errands to run," she answered him, finally. "I'll be there, though."

It had been hard to disguise her annoyance for too long, but she was able to wait until it was time. Skulking into the deep storage facility, she typed in the code for release of Boone's particular holding tank. It eased out of the wall with a soft scraping noise. In it, was her old friend. 

In the time that he had been in the tank, his awful wounds had not healed. He had died, and not yet had time to "come back." He had been put in suspension before he had repaired himself.

Well, that was about to change.

Walking over to the readouts, she reversed the suspension procedure. Slowly, to avoid notice or shock to Will's system. 

Her ears picked up a soft thrumming noise, like a cat's purr. The blue light that radiated from the tank faded, until Boone's body floated in shadow. The deep humming gradually lessened, and the process was complete.

Looking at his vitals, it was obvious that he hadn't come back yet. Grunting, Deirdre watched closely for several minutes. 

Afraid that she had been wrong after all, she began to notice the telltale signs of an immortal's healing, as the hideous tears and burns in his flesh started to mend themselves, dotted with streaks of lightening.

Sighing with relief, Deirdre waited until he had healed most of his wounds. Then she clambered up the side of the tank, and opened it. Inserting a thin needle into his upper arm, she gave a not so healthy, (in fact, it was fatal) dose of poison she had stolen from one of the Taelon's medical bays. His monitors went dead.

Taking a deep breath and grunting under his weight, she heaved the tall human out from the liquid. True, it would have been easier to just drain the tank, but the alarms would sound only with the tank completely empty. Closing her eyes, she unchained a part of her shape-changing spell. Now, she had her old strength back. Leaping lightly to the ground, she found a sheet that would normally be used to cover dead bodies, and wrapped him in it. Next, she carefully set the room back to exactly the way she found it. Using an illusion spell that would make everyone who saw her would ignore her, she trotted to the shuttle bay. Depositing the body, she jumped into the pilot's seat, gained clearance to leave, and left. 

Entering ID, she made a smooth path to Da'an's embassy, and landed. Again, she picked Boone up. Trying to take a path that no one would notice her on; she went to the top of the embassy. Then, she waited for nightfall.

It seemed to take forever, as it always did. She had to cross the dawn line to get there from the mother ship, but she was grateful for that. It would make the spell go that much smoother.

Cooley heard a soft sigh from beside her, and that told her that Will was once again among the land of the living. Then, the sun sank below the horizon.

"Oh, God," she gasped, as the first waves of pain hit.

Feet became splayed talons, fingers joined together, horns emerging from her forehead, and wings and tale erupted from her back. A roar of awakening thundered from her throat.

Breathing deeply of the newly night air, Deirdre took a great joy in returning to her real form. With a graceful ease, she lifted the unconscious Boone, and glided to her loft, her mission successful.

William Boone screamed, and screamed, and screamed. He had seen her die. There was no way that she could be there, standing directly in front of him.

Taken aback, Deirdre just stood in the doorway of her bedroom, wondering what it was that had him so frightened.

"Easy, Will, easy!"

"You're dead! I saw you die!"

"Yes, you did. Congratulations! You're in Hell," the rather sadistic streak in her made her say.

"I, what, where?"

She deliberately walked over to Will, and gave him a huge pinch on the cheek.

"Ouch," he yelped in pain.

"You're awake, in case you were wondering."

"Thanks," he said sarcastically. His mind flashed to what could have happened. "This is some sort of illusion, the Taelons must have scanned my memory to make me give something away-"

"Will, why would they use someone you thought were dead?" Deirdre asked, exasperated.

"Who knows how the Companions think? They could have any number of reasons-"

"Then, why are you in my apartment, and not somewhere you would feel comfortable? And while we're on the subject of using dead people, why not use Flower Girl?"

"I thought that I told you not to call Kate that," his annoyance for at that name made him think that, if they were trying to get his trust, then they were going about it the wrong way.

Boone's CVI began to play back memories of his old second in his platoon. They were strong, and as complete as any other memory that his CVI could produce, especially those of her death.

Again, he could hear the gunfire, as he was transported back-

__

"Sir, it's an ambush!"

He and Kincaid snapped around, seeing Cooley running toward them, her rifle spitting out slugs at the people behind him. She was so busy covering their backs that she forgot to cover her own.

"Cooley!" Boone shouted in warning, too late.

The sniper behind her fired, and round after round thudded into her chest, blowing her upper body into a gory lace…

Shaking his head, he said aloud," My memories of you are vivid. I guess that means that you aren't something they happened to program into my CVI. The worst one is how you died."

"Yes, I told you. I did die. You saw me." She scratched her head, with a familiar look on her face that came when she had something to say, but wasn't sure how to say it.

"You may not believe me when I tell you this, but I came back from the dead. I am immortal."

"Right," he sneered. "Next, you're going to tell me that fairies and elves are real."

Giving him a wry look, she answered," Well, yes, they are, but the weirdest thing I'm going to tell you is that you are, too."

He was about to interrupt, when she held up her hand," You died after that fight with Ha'gel, but that wasn't what killed you. It was Zo'or."

She brought out her global, into which she had downloaded the recording of Boone's demise. Tossing it to Will, he opened and played back the visual.

He was speechless, as his own memories of what happened to him came back. They were amplified with this CVI, and impossible for the Companions to duplicate. Still, he didn't believe what she had said about herself, much less about him.

"I don't know what you have planned," he muttered, "But it won't go along with it."

"By the Dragon," she groaned. She knew that he would be stubborn about it, but there was no reason for him to be _this_ stubborn.

"I guess I'll have to prove it the hard way," she mumbled, and her hand slid down her leg to her boots. Pulling out a bowie knife, she smiled in annoyance.

"This will hurt." She balanced the large pommel in her hand, and slung it.

Before Boone could let out any kind of yell, the knife was deeply embedded in his chest.

He died.

For about five minutes, he lay there, on the floor, blood pooling around him, very dead. Then life exploded back into his body.

Gasping in pain, he tilted his head forward to look at the knife sticking out of his chest. He could feel his heart trying to beat around the twelve-inch blade planted there. "My God," he shrieked shrilly, panic taking over.

Reaching over, Deirdre yanked the bowie knife from him.

"G-god," he sobbed out, lying back down. "Warn me, will ya?"

"Have I proved my point?" Deirdre asked, her voice shaking a little.

"Was that a pun?" he responded, angry now.

"No. Well, one good turn deserves another."

With that, she reversed the knife towards herself, and thrust home. She fell, a boneless heap. 

Boone couldn't believe that she had done that, despite her having just murdered him. Scrambling over, he pulled the knife from her chest, and checked her pulse. There was none. He noticed vaguely that he was kneeling in blood, his own and hers.

For several minutes, she lay there, unmoving, not breathing, when her eyes opened, and she gasped.

"Now, have I made my point?"

"I-I, I'll listen to what you have to say."

"Good. I have to go soon. I have to get to work. If you ever feel anything like what you did when I came in the room, then run to the nearest holy ground. Two: While you can't die of any other method, if your head and your shoulders ever part company, then you die, permanently. Three: If you want to, you can access my computer, and use anything you find there, but don't, under any circumstances, ever contact anyone from your past. They all believe that you are dead, and I'm trying to save you and them a lot of pain. Got it?" She stared him in the eyes, daring him to say anything.

Well, once she left, he could do whatever he wanted.

"I'm going to take a shower, and get all the blood off me. You mind?"

Looking at the recently dead woman, not sure he could trust himself to speak, he nodded.

She looked at the floor that was covered in drying, sticky blood, feeling annoyed.

Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she held out of her hands, and softly hummed. Her hand lit up, and the blood, impossibly, pulled itself into a ball, and was tossed into a nearby trash can. Boone, who had more than his fair share of shocks for one day, sat down again, very hard.

"How did you do that?" he asked, faintly.

Deirdre waved her hand in the air. "It's maaa-gic," she replied. Then, she went into the bathroom. Boone sat in a daze, listening to the water run.

At some point, he must have fallen asleep, because he never heard her leave. Now, he thought, I will get some answers.

"It'll be one hell of a mistake leaving him there alone," Deirdre mumbled to herself, thinking that she might as well of taken his head right them. There was no way she could keep him there, not and keep his trust.

She sighed gustily, before she walked into the embassy, and was immediately met by Kincaid. 

"Good. You're early, and you're even dressed decently."

Deirdre raised her eyebrows at that. "I had not been told there would be any kind of dress requirements for this evening, or any other time. For that matter, your clothes are rather shabby." She was looking at his usual outfit of dark pants, patterned shirt, and leather coat. She was dressed the way she usually did, only this time with a white silk blouse with full sleeves under a black suede vest, and all of that was under her normal coat. Her hair was in a braid down her back. 

They both glared at each other with barely concealed hostility. 

"What is it with you two?" said Marquette. She walked between them. "I feel like I'm going to have to stick you in opposite corners to keep you from hitting each other."

It was in silence, then, that they walked to the shuttle bay. Deirdre sat in the back, while Liam decided to pilot, because he couldn't stand the thought of sitting next to her.

"Where are we going for the meeting?" Deirdre asked Lili, after having asked Liam three times, with no answer.

"The Aerie Building."

Deirdre whistled. Then, because the joke was right in front of her," We are moving up in the world, aren't we?"

It was so bad, that no one even bothered to groan about it.

The Aerie Building was still the world's tallest, mainly because no one else was rich enough, or crazy enough, even in Taelon America to put a tenth century Scottish castle on top of a skyscraper.

Liam was a very good pilot. They landed on the very top, on the castle itself. For some reason, as soon as Deirdre stepped out of the shuttle and onto the parapet, she felt a strange sense of belonging. It was like she had come home.

They were greeted by Owen Burnett, David Xanatos' assistant, and his son Alex. 

Pulling out her ID, Deirdre greeted them with, "I'm Sergeant Deirdre Cooley, this is Lili Marquette and Major Liam Kincaid. We are here for the bidding on the contract."

"Yes," said Mr. Burnett. Glancing him over, Deirdre's first impression was that this guy was more than he looked. He while he looked like the perfect cardboard cutout of a personal assistant, her nose was telling her that something was different about this man. She couldn't put her finger on it, but there it was. Alex Xanatos was a David Xanatos with red hair. He positively _reeked_ of magic, and that was something she would have to look into later. 

Liam and Lili lined up beside her to shake hands. Formalities done, they followed their hosts into the bowels of Castle Wyvern.

It was a long walk, but Deirdre didn't mind. There was little in the way of small talk, and most of that was handled by Kincaid. Deirdre was taking a delightful pleasure in simply walking through the massive building. It had a deep, musky scent to it, like old leather, but with a subtly different aftertaste to it…

Inhaling deeply and closing her eyes, Deirdre could feel her CVI working to put a name to the strangely home-like smell that so permeated the large stone edifice. Stone, how she had missed it! The exotic plant buildings that were grown by the Companions seemed like a lovely trap for unwary flies. Stone was safe, and warm, and –

Her eyes clamped shut all the more, when the memory surfaced. She smelled gargoyles. Now, she opened them, hoping that no one had noticed her woolgathering. 

Eyes were on her back. When one had been a soldier as long as she had, you began to recognize the feeling. Wondering if she looked as stupid as she felt, she reached inside her coat, for her compact. She flipped it open, and caught the shadow of wings, slipping into the dark of the night.

Her heart in her throat, Deirdre wondered if all they were there for was to bid on portal technologies.

William Boone was about to explode from sitting still. He had gotten on Deirdre's computer, and he was shocked to find out that the date said it was over six months later!

Looking into what it was saying, he realized that he needed to speak to someone from the resistance. If he didn't, there was no way that he could know what was really going on. He would have loved to know what she had done to make it look like she had driven a knife into his chest, and then repeated it on herself. If this was some sort of scheme on the part of Zo'or, why implicate himself? 

Other questions filled his thoughts. Why _would_ they use someone he thought was dead and gone? If they were going to make him think that reality was different, why wouldn't they use something more…probable?

Grunting in frustration, he turned the computer off, and had decided to leave.

He let out a deep breath. The resistance still seemed to be alive and kicking. That was something he could do, and prove to himself that it this was or was not some sort of elaborate plot. 

Boone decided to raid Deirdre's closet. She was almost as big as he was, and if she had any more of those huge coats she favored…

Grabbing one, he left the loft.

It was a long walk to the Flat Planet. 

Boone lost his breath faster than he should have. He wondered when he had last exercised. Hearing himself wheeze, it seemed like lifetimes ago. For a moment, standing in front of the café, he heard all of Deirdre's admonitions not to find anyone from his past. _But that's more than a little silly. She must be working for the Taelon's or she wouldn't have tried to give me a reason not to go._

His hesitation gone, he strode in.

Augur was sitting in his usual booth, brokering stocks, this time. Of course, he was the one that had engineered the fall of certain companies' prices, and the rise of others. For some reason, he loved the smell of green in the evening. 

The nightlife of the Flat Planet was just getting warmed up. It was only a little after midnight, and the business at the bar was hopping. Augur was just about to order another round, when he caught sight of something that made him feel like he had been kicked in the head.

Seeing Deirdre alive had been strange enough, even though he doubted that it was really she. Now, some creep was impersonation Boone? That was just sick!

Getting up, he decided to go confront this freak, and find out who was trying their best to become a damned Lazarus.

"Hey, buddy, I don't know who the hell you are, but if you don't tell me what you are doing here, I will have to report you," he grated the imposter, who turned to look at him, his face covered with confusion.

"Augur?" 

"Yeah, whatever. They, whoever it is that likes to try bringing people back from the dead, has already pulled that act with me with that Cooley clone. Frankly, I'm sick of it. There are a lot of people here that knew Boone, and I am not going to let you run around, bringing back bad memories!" 

"Augur, I don't know what you're talking about. I woke up, and I saw Cooley, and I have no idea what is going on! This has got to be some trick by the Taelons. I have got to go and find out what happened!"

Augur's temper was abating while he listened to this. It sounded like, whoever this person was, he was as confused as Augur himself was.

Grimacing, Augur answered, "Come on, pal. Let's go make sure you are who you say you are." 

Closing up shop for this night, Augur took Boone down to the church, which was his home, now.

Deirdre was sitting, listening as Liam took bids for technologies. It was a pity that Dominique Destine had not been able to be there in person, but family matters had gotten in the way. She was still able to bid, but by audio only. 

It was a rather heated negation, with both companies dueling it out for the portal rights. Yet, the way their host and his competition argued, it was like they had some kind of history together. Leaning back, Deirdre took a moment to get David Xanatos' measure.

He had to be in his mid-fifties, but he had aged very, very well. He had an ageless quality to him that made her wonder if he was an immortal, but she had not gotten any kind of "buzz" off of him, so that theory was out. Except for a few streaks of gray, he was still in the prime of his life.

Deirdre was getting odd looks from his assistant ever so often, like she was something he had never seen before in his life. It was rather unnerving. 

Gargoyles. There were other gargoyles here! Simply knowing that was making her itch to go out and investigate, and see what might be living here. She needed to tell them the truth about the Taelons, and let them know that they couldn't be trusted. Although, she thought to herself, from past experiences with humans should have taught them that.

The negotiations were going well, and it looked like Xanatos would get the contract after all. 

Feeling more than a little edgy, Deirdre got up. Leaning over, she asked Mr. Burnett where the bathroom was.

He looked at her a strangely, but gave her directions. Nodding in thanks, she walked down the hall he pointed to. 

To make sure that her excuse was genuine, she did walk into the bathroom. Getting into one of the stalls, she glanced around. There were no surveillance cameras there. 

__

Okay, if there are gargoyles here, then how do I contact them? For another, how do I do that, without letting Xanatos, or Liam know about it?

Her mind wandered, but she knew that she had to find out what the gargoyles were doing here, and if there were, in fact, gargoyles at all.

_Is Xanatos as lax about security as the Companions?_

She couldn't sense electronics the way that she could sense another immortal. Well, she thought, no time to experiment with magic than the present…

"Hey, Deirdre," shouted Lili. "We're done, here. Let's go."

Standing up and flushing the toilet, Deirdre whispered, "Damn."

"I can't believe it," Augur muttered to himself, looking at the DNA readout that he and Dr. Belman had been working on. "He's the real thing."

"Genetically, he is. But, there is the possibility that he is, in fact, a clone. The Companions have that capability."

"Come on. I've been testing his memory, and he has all of Boone's memories, at least as far as I can tell. Plus, we also ran a test on the skrill on his arm. It's Condor. If they were going to clone him, why would they clone his skrill? Besides, no one saw his body. They could have put him in cryo, or something."

"Remember Lazarus? He acted a great deal like Boone, as well. This may be one of the weirdest things of my career. Has he said anything about how he got here?" 

"Let's ask him," Augur suggested, and gestured over to a very pissed off looking William Boone. He had not anticipated having to prove his own validity. In an odd way, though, it reassured him about the reality of what was going on.

"Hey, Boone, what happened to you?" 

Boone wondered when they would finally ask that.

"I don't know. The last thing I remember after Ha'gel was being in one of those blue tanks. Then, a fizzy feeling, like I was about to be shocked by static electricity. Then pain and darkness. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in Cooley's apartment, wondering what the hell happened."

Augur sat up like he had been stung. "You say that Cooley was the one that found you?"

"I woke up in her apartment. She didn't say if she was the one who found me or not. What she did tell me was incredible enough." He shook his in incredulity. "She said that I was immortal, and that she was too."

"Yeah, right. Did she mention the part about not looking into mirrors or sunlight?" snorted Augur. "She could have offered to hold up a cross to prove it. Did she try to prove it?"

A haunted expression passed over Boone's face, and Augur wondered what he had said wrong. 

"Yes, she did."

"What?" asked Dr. Belman, thinking that she couldn't have heard him right.

"Yes, she did try to prove it. I think that she must have pulled some sort of mind trick on me, but she pulled out a knife, and stabbed me with it."

That got the predictable response, although Dr. Belman wanted desperately to try and repeat what Deirdre had done, which Boone wouldn't allow.

It was a disgruntled Deirdre that returned to her loft. She was frustrated, and that meant that she wanted to get back into her own skin, and go gliding. If she had only been able to speak with those gargoyles at the Aerie Building! 

The quiet of her home beckoned, and she dropped onto her couch. It took a little while for it to click in her head that it was quiet. It was way too quiet, especially with another immortal there.

"Oh, shit!"

They were finally satisfied that Boone was Boone, but that didn't mean much.

"I don't know what to tell you," Belman told him. "If you are really immortal, or how you got that way, or anything else, for that matter. Your DNA is about as textbook as you can get, and you have all your memories. I just don't understand it."

They had decided, though, that finding out the specifics could wait, and that it would be a good idea to go back to the Flat Planet to celebrate the return of their old friend.

It was on the way that Boone got a feeling like he had when he had first seen Deirdre. Only it felt wrong, like an ill-tune instrument. It made William almost sick.

"I think I'm going to be sick," he said, his words echoing his thoughts.

They had been walking back, unable to get a cab. 

Suddenly remembering Cooley's advice about strange feelings, he asked Augur," Is there any holy ground around here?"

Not asking any question, he answered," There's a church over that way." He pointed left.

"Let's get out of here."

"What's going on?" Augur snapped as they broke into a run.

"I'm following advice!"

"What-," Deirdre hissed, feeling the presence of another immortal in the area.

Boone and Augur ran, but as they turned to the Old Church, they were blocked by a man that looked as if his mother had been deeply involved with a bear.

Smiling ferally, the man drew a heavy kris broadsword. 

"I am Chapman, and I have come for your head."

"I don't think he's ready to give it up just yet," said Augur, ever the wise ass.

"Listen, buddy, I don't want fight you," Boone started, but he was cut off.

"I want your Quickening, and I will have it," shrugged the larger man, who was dressed like a respectable businessperson, but his hair and eyes were wild. 

Augur didn't get where he was without learning how to think on his feet. He had already grabbed his global and was getting a mayday out to Liam and Lili. While he was doing this, Chapman had begun to advance on Boone.

Boone was caught in disbelief. If what he felt was real, and this man was another immortal, which couldn't be happening, there was no such thing, his every thought denied it, but here he was, another immortal, but that was impossible-

Boone was not normally the type to be stuck in confusion, but he was. Yet even as his mind stopped working, his reflexes worked to save him. His arm raised Condor the skrill ready to fire.

It was then that he was imbued with the sense of _another_ immortal. She came out of no where, and it was another that he didn't recognize.

"My name is Ginger, and I wouldn't do that. You are forbidden to use distance weapons. If you violate those, then I will have to fight you as well."

She was a normal looking woman, but she also had bloodlust rampant in her eyes.

Both of the immortals looked at their prey with sadistic humor, and laughed, when Chapman advanced. He swung, a quick, stinging swipe, which cut a shallow gash into Condor. The skrill gave a short trill of pain, and blanked out. 

Feeling the creature's pain, Boone gave a short yell. He backed up, when Chapman shed his overcoat, and kicked at him. 

While disoriented, he was able to block, and hold on.

Augur, while not the most adept fighter in the universe, ran at the woman. Giggling insanely, she deflected, and that fight was joined, though it was massively one-sided. Augur was having the living hell beaten from him.

Boone landed a side-kick, but Chapman shrugged it off, and snatched at his foot. With ease, he twisted, and the joint gave a hideous crunch, felling Will. It was then that the sense of another immortal surprised them all.

Swallowing a curse, Boone groaned," What now?" while his dancing partner colored the air around him with his language.

It was dark and foggy in front of the little grimy church, but the lone street light made the mist seem to glow. A figure emerged, looking more than a little ticked.

Deirdre was shrugging off her coat as she approached the combatants. 

Her plain hand and a half broadsword clenched in her hands, she continued over to them.

"I am Deirdre, and I have come for the head of the one who would kill my student," she announced, grimly facing the behemoth that was trying to take William's head.

"The battle had already begun, witch. You can not interfere now."

"Alright," she said lazily, but glanced over the woman beating the crap out of Augur. Her own arm came up, and she fired.

The blast knocked the woman off her feet, and Augur was almost taken with her. Rushing over to Augur, she gave him a hand up. 

"That was against all the rules!" Chapman screamed at her, eyes blazing like a gargoyle's.

"No," she corrected. "She was fighting a mortal. I was protecting a friend. That put it outside the rules. Now, since she is prone now, will you protect her before I take her head?"

Almost roaring, the man rushed her. 

Easily sidestepping, Deirdre countered his thrust with a riposte of her own. 

First blood was hers.

Beyond sanity, Chapman launched a brutal attack, one that was based on shear strength.

He began a series of overhand blows, while Deirdre parried up, getting in close, then lunged in with her shoulder, throwing Chapman off balance. She followed with a blow that should have taken his head, but he kicked up, knocking her off her feet. Rolling out the way, she swung her leg hind him to return the favor, but he jumped. She was now facing his backside a split second before he turned around. Head butting him, he lost his breath with a loud oomph, and Deirdre shifted her grip on her sword to one hand. She got to her feet and lashed out with a crescent kick to the front, finally getting him to the ground. Slashing down to the left, she took off his sword hand, and then his head.

Her eyes were dead at that moment. The pain that he saw made him wonder if the worst wounds could ever be physical.

It was then that a shuttle came out of ID, and landed a few feet from them. Out leaped Liam and Lili.

Deirdre looked at them in shock, before shrieking, her arms flinging up to the sky," **_THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!"_**

The world exploded in lightening.

It cracked the sky, and lit the air around them with a garish blue. A ring of fire surrounded Deirdre for a timeless eternity, as the lightening hit her, and was absorbed. Then, it was over.

"What are you?" asked Lili, her voice hushed.

Sergeant Cooley had fallen to the ground at the end of the Quickening, so she had to look up from her hands and knees position to answer. 

"I am the undying, the death that comes on the wings of night," and said nothing more.

Fin.

Comment? Questions? Death threats? 


End file.
